The Morning Dish – Monday, September 29th
See if you can spot the trend in today’s Dish.
ACC Lawsuit: The Big East/ACC lawsuit is back in the news today, as a Connecticut judge will hear arguments from the ACC and new member Miami on whether to dismiss the suit. The Big East sued the ACC on behalf of its football members, claiming that the ACC recruiting of Miami, Syracuse, and Boston College would devalue the Big East resulting in losses in ticket sales and broadcasting fees. Syracuse and Boston College are still in the Big East, but original plaintiff Virginia Tech is now on the other side of the aisle, having joined the ACC with Miami. The first hurdle is to determine whether the Connecticut court is the proper venue for the lawsuit, as the ACC doesn’t do much business in Connecticut, save for some recruiting and ESPN contracts. Meanwhile, the Big East is lining up four replacement schools from Conference USA, said to be Cincinnati DePaul, Louisville, and Marquette.
More ACC: In a “conference conference call”, member institutions of the ACC agreed that full participation in all ACC sponsored-sports would be mandatory for any potential new members, thus applying the kibosh on Notre Dame rumors. The ACC extended invitations to Miami and Virginia Tech this past summer, and both schools will join for next academic season in 2004-05. However, the conference is still lacking a 12th team to enable a football championship game. Last week, the Charlotte Observer reported that Notre Dame had accepted an invitation to join the ACC, which was later denied by both parties. A spokesperson for Notre Dame stated that the school did not seek to align with any conference in football.
ACC Cheerleading: The University of Maryland has made cheerleading a varsity sport for the Terrapins. Before you say, “Wha . .?”, most believe the move is to be crafty around Title IX. On Friday, Maryland created four cheerleading and eight women’s water polo scholarships, which school officials state keep them in compliance with Title IX, the gender-equity legislation for collegiate athletics. Cheerleading is not a recognized sport at the NCAA level, however, Maryland officials claimed that those two club teams were the only ones to petition for varsity status this past year. The 12 new scholarships, which will be phased in over three years, also mean that their are now 20 new men’s sports scholarships available as well, assuming that the cheerleading squad is women-only.
