WASHINGTON (AP) – Nine U.S. Senators from the home states of the other Big East schools wrote to the leaders of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse on Wednesday in an effort to stop them from bolting to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The senators from West Virginia, Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania said the defection would devastate the Big East, erode the progress its schools have made in women’s sports and “send a troubling message to student-athletes across America.”
“The Big East has instilled core values of integrity, responsibility, loyalty and leadership in each and every student-athlete,” the lawmakers said in the letter sent to University of Miami President Donna Shalala, Boston College President Rev. William P. Leahy and Syracuse University Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw.
“The result – Big East students continue to excel,” they wrote.
The letter noted the conference’s success in producing Rhodes Scholars and in NCAA competition – especially in women’s sports, including Connecticut’s women’s basketball title, Notre Dame’s women’s soccer title and Villanova’s women’s cross country championship.
“It is not an exaggeration to suggest that this progress would be seriously jeopardized should you decide to leave the Big East,” the letter said. “Instead of working toward the goal of greater equity between men’s and women’s athletics, the departure of your institutions will have the effect of stifling years of progress.”
The letter was signed by Sens. Joe Lieberman and Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn.; Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine, D-N.J.; Sens. Robert C. Byrd and John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W. Va.; Sens. George Allen and John Warner, R-Va.; and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
The ACC wants to become to a 12-team league that would expand its market and reap more lucrative television contracts. League officials are expected to visit Miami, Boston College and Syracuse in the next week as part of the process of inviting them to join.
Should they accept, it could mean the end of the Big East – at least as a football conference. The Big East was formed in 1979 and added football in 1991.
“What message do we send to student-athletes when decades of history can be destroyed as a sole result of economic considerations?” the senators asked in their letter. “The wrong one.”
Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn denied the decision is based solely on money.
“Our decision to consider the ACC invitation is based exclusively on what is in the best interest of Boston College, athletically, academically and financially,” he said. “We welcome the senators’ feedback, and we hope that they can understand our position.”
Syracuse spokesman Kevin Morrow said the school is concerned about its athletic future if Miami, the conference’s top football power, should leave.
“The landscape is changing and major intercollegiate athletics is clearly heading in the direction of the superconference,” he said. “It’s clear that if we’re not going to be part of the movement, we’re going to be left behind.”
Miami officials have been meeting to discuss the move to the ACC and a vote is expected “sooner rather than later,” according to Hurricanes football coach Larry Coker.
Regardless of their decision, the three schools would play in the Big East until 2005. That also would be the first year Connecticut’s football program, which only recently upgraded to Division I, would begin league play.
Officials from UConn and other Big East teams not being lured away said they will do what they can to persuade the three to stay.
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