[h1]COLLEGES; Miami to Join A.C.C.; Shift of Power Expected[/h1]
By CHARLIE NOBLES
Published: July 01, 2003
The University of Miami said today that it would leave the Big East Conference for the Atlantic Coast Conference, joining Virginia Tech in a move that immediately transforms the A.C.C. into a college football powerhouse.
''Ready or not, here we come,'' Miami's president, Donna E. Shalala, told James F. Barker, the president of both Clemson University and the A.C.C., in a morning telephone call.
The defections will cost the Big East its two most successful football programs -- teams that have earned the conference millions of dollars in television revenue through their on-field success.
The departures are the first dominos in what could become a series of conference realignments that alter intercollegiate sports east of the Mississippi. Those realignments are also expected to redistribute the lucrative television contracts and bowl bids that brought both the A.C.C. and the Big East more than $16 million last year.
Shalala's decision ended almost two months of debate, negotiations and acrimony within the A.C.C. and between it and the Big East as they sought to claim Miami, which has won five national championships and is ranked as high as No. 2 nationally for the coming season.
