Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva refuted a report that appeared in yesterday's New York Post that Boston College would accept an offer to join the ACC as its 12th member "within days."
"All that is speculation, nothing has been done in regard to Boston College and we are moving ahead with an 11-team league," Alleva wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle Monday afternoon. "Things can change but nothing has happened to date."
ACC expansion developments have been frenzied in recent weeks, all because of a preliminary decision from the NCAA that the ACC's petition to have a conference championship game in football with an 11-member league had been rejected.
The ACC's hope for a title game, which would have taken place during the 2004-05 season, resulted from the conference's recent addition of Miami and Virginia Tech, which boosted the league's population from nine to 11 schools. Indeed, the ACC increased its size for the primary goal of having a conference championship in football, having originally sought Miami, Boston College and Syracuse. However, due to a plethora of disagreements and political and administrative maneuvering over the summer, the ACC's presidents were only able to invite two schools, Miami and Virginia Tech, current-Big East members that agreed to defect in July.
Then, a few weeks ago, speculation that the ACC had been actively pursuing football-independent Notre Dame to join the conference was confirmed by Alleva and Duke President Nan Keohane. However, Notre Dame--a member of the Big East in all sports except football--refused to give up its independent football status, and as a result, was promptly dropped from consideration as a 12th school in the ACC. The Fighting Irish were seen as a good option because of "their high-quality stature in both academics and athletics," according to Keohane.
Likewise, Boston College has a strong academic and athletic reputation, a lucrative combination for a conference that has suffered a barrage of criticism for its handling of expansion, and would greatly benefit from the addition of a well-rounded university such as Boston College.
Other factors that are likely attractive for the ACC are Boston College's expansive market--the Boston metropolitan area is the nation's seventh largest at 5.8 million--particularly in terms of possible television dollars. Boston would be the largest market in the ACC, ahead of Atlanta (4.1 million) and Miami (3.9 million).
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