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Date published: 6/25/2008
By DAVID TEEL
THE (NEWPORT NEWS) DAILY PRESS BLACKSBURG-- Weeks after commencement, on a blustery May afternoon, the Virginia Tech campus exhales. Except for the athletic complex.Bulldozers break ground on a basketball practice complex; the softball and men's and women's track teams prepare for NCAA championships; administrators tout the department's latest academic efforts. It is a spring like no other in Hokies history. It is a spring that Atlantic Coast Conference membership made possible. Five years ago yesterday, in a reversal many of the principals still find stunning, the ACC voted Virginia Tech into the league of Hokie Nation's dreams. Five years later, Virginia Tech sports prosper like never before. "The best thing that has ever happened to the university both academically and athletically is the invitation from the Atlantic Coast Conference," athletic director Jim Weaver said. "There is absolutely no downside. None." Better students, athletes and coaches. Record revenue, attendance and television exposure. More subsequent ACC championships than seven conference colleagues; improved graduation rates and grade-point averages; continuous facility upgrades and larger recruiting budgets. "I don't know that anyone would have predicted this for Virginia Tech," said football coach Frank Beamer, class of '69. CONSOLATION CANDIDATE? In May 2003, no one would have predicted ACC membership, much less excellence, for the Hokies. Seeking to upgrade its football and enter lucrative television markets in South Florida and the New York-Boston corridor, the conference publicly targeted Big East schools Miami, Syracuse and Boston College. Virginia Tech pleaded for inclusion and was rebuffed. National rankings? Postseason tournaments? The Hokies were concerned more with survival. Panicked that the Big East might crumble, Virginia Tech joined a lawsuit to prevent ACC expansion. But intervention by then-Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and subsequent infighting among the ACC's nine CEOs--University of Virginia president John Casteen was a pivotal figure--forever altered the landscape of college athletics. During a June 24 conference call, 18 days after the lawsuit's filing, ACC officials extended offers to Virginia Tech and Miami. One year later, the ACC embraced Boston College to complete the current 12-school alignment. The evening of the invitation, Weaver rose from bed--he learned the news from university president Charles Steger after 11 p.m.--and uncorked a bottle of champagne with his wife, Traci. "That's as clear in my mind as the day my little guy was born," Weaver said.
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