Going to 6?

[Nacho]

Duke is such a dope.

<A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6406-2003Jun17.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6406-2003Jun17.html</A>

[EastStang]

The article indicates that Duke and UNC want to talk and talk, but that the schools are very sympathetic with UVa. situation. My suspicion is that GT or FSU sent or will send a proposed change to the constitution of the league to the league office and the schools have 15 days to review it. This will make Duke and UNC see that they cannot defeat expansion. Then UNC will vote for it partly to get UVa. off the hook. If they have to change the Constitution, then the expansion would become effective for 2005-2006 instead of 2004-2005 since it could not be accomplished by June 30. One interesting side note is that if the ACC waits until June 29 to extend the invites and the three schools tender their resignations to the Big East on June 30, the Big East won't have time to extend invites to Louisville and others so that they can avoid severe penalties. This would mean that the Big East would incur significant costs in dealing with Louisville and others to avoid being decertified by the NCAA as a football conference for 2004. The funny thing is that the three departing schools can vote against Big East expansion until they tender their resignations. Given the lawsuit that is pending, think they might have some leverage. "Sure, we'll vote for expansion now before June 30, if you dismiss your lawsuit with prejudice."

[Nacho]

So the 3 schools wait until June 30, at just before midnight to announce their intentions to leave the BE. That would be rich.

[This message has been edited by Nacho (edited 06-18-2003).]