Boston College Athletics
Leahy, DeFilippo Discuss Move To ACC
October 12, 2003 | Boston College Athletics
Oct. 12, 2003
Boston College President William P. Leahy, S.J., and Director of Athletics Gene DeFilippo met with members of the news media Sunday afternoon to answer questions about BC's decision to accept the Atlantic Coast Conference's invitation to become the 12th member of its league. The following is a transcript of that question and answer session.
Q: What is the timetable (for the move to the ACC)?
Gene DeFilippo:
"Those are things we need to work out with the BIG EAST. We have been on the telephone today with Michael Tranghese. Father has been on the phone as well with some of the presidents. Those are some of the things we are going to need to work out as we go along.
"We have been running since we got the call three or four hours ago. We really haven't had a chance to think about it...There's a lot that needs to be considered, so I cannot answer that now."
Q: What type of exit fee will BC have to pay the BIG EAST?
Fr. Leahy:
"We will abide by...the valid provisions of the BIG EAST constitution. That has not been worked out.
"There certainly was discussion over the summer about increasing the withdrawal fee. There have been moves in that direction. We need to let the lawyers look at the documents and see when does it become official. Whatever the lawyers work out, that is what we will abide by."
Q: In the meetings this summer, did BC vote to endorse that exit penalty?
Fr. Leahy:
"We agreed as part of the discussions about reorganizing the BIG EAST that there would be, down the road, an increased withdrawal penalty for schools leaving the BIG EAST. All of those discussions were going to be brought together in time for a vote at the November 4 meeting. But whatever the case is right now - the provisions - we will discuss that with the BIG EAST and certainly fulfill any requirements."
Gene DeFilippo:
"Those fees will be paid out of Athletic Department funds. Due to the increased payouts we anticipate from the ACC conference revenue, that money will come out of Athletic Department money."
Q: Did you expect to be here again, addressing this subject?
Fr. Leahy:
"In June, I knew the situation remained unclear to the extent that there wasn't a twelfth school. But until a couple of weeks ago, we had no inkling of what was going on in the Atlantic Coast Conference as to where the discussions were going, discussions on running the conference with eleven teams. What direction was the ACC going in? I needed to find out for Boston College's sake, what was going on in the Atlantic Coast Conference. So I said I was going to find that out and I was going to have to make a decision once I found out."
Q: What was the ACC's response to your inquiry?
Fr. Leahy:
"Part of what the answer was...they were feeling the pressure to add a twelfth team. They had always had an interest in Boston College and so in the last couple of weeks I think they realized that BC was a great fit and if we were interested they were going to discuss it. This morning they had their conference call and they made their decision and now we have made ours."
Q: Do you have remorse about leaving the BIG EAST?
Gene DeFilippo:
"As I said to you all along since March or April, the older I get the more I realize, everything is not all good or all bad. I grew up an hour and forty-five minutes away from here and I grew up with those eastern teams. Certainly I have a feeling of loss for them. And I have some longtime friendships in the league as well. Mike Tranghese, Bob Mulchahy and others. At the end of the day, our job is do what we feel like is best for our institution. That is what we have done here today."
Q: Could you discuss the financial ramifications, given the ACC's revenue sharing model.
Fr. Leahy:
"In the ACC, all the schools participate in equal sharing. So in the budget planning perspective it's easier to budget because you know basically what your revenues are going to be."
Gene DeFilippo
"When you know that you're going to get X amount, and you can budget that, then it's much easier to work than if you're guessing what that Y might be."
Q: Will the additional travel mileage be of concern?
Fr. Leahy:
"What I have learned as I looked at airline schedules with all of the current travel times is that I don't think there will be any more significant loss of class time by being in the ACC than the way were structuring and responding for travel in the BIG EAST. Boston has great airline connections with the south and really every part of the country. We can get great flights for our student-athletes out of Boston."
Gene DeFilippo:
"For the conference games, yes. But we will still play a lot of local teams. For example, field hockey. We will still continue to play Harvard and Boston University and Northeastern. We play Dartmouth every year and Brown and Holy Cross. We will still play those teams out of league. We might have three or four games home and three or four games away so there will be a little bit more travel. A couple of years ago, we played Duke. We traveled down on a regional jet from here to Raleigh-Durham...and I was back in my office by ten o'clock the next morning. Another thing is most of our teams are playing a national schedule right now. You look at our golf team and where they are going, and our softball and baseball teams, where they travel now. We are used to travel because we play Notre Dame, Miami, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. So it's not like every trip has been a bus trip for us."
Q: Will you maintain all 31 of your current sports?
Gene DeFilippo:
"We will certainly take a look at our athletic department now and decide which sports fit and if some sports don't fit, we will certainly talk about cutting some sports. But what those are at this point and if we will do that, definitely I don't know at this time."
Q: Will you continue to play BIG EAST teams?
Gene DeFilippo:
"We would like to continue to play BIG EAST schools in all sports. We have a long-standing tradition with good schools like Providence and Connecticut in basketball, and others. We would really like to continue playing in sports like football and basketball as well. Absolutely."
Q: How do you see the new conference alignment?
Gene DeFilippo:
"I really don't know. I don't even know what the divisions are. If you ask me to put the six teams in one and the five in the other I couldn't do it. I haven't read it. The only thing I read was that three or four of the teams had to play Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech in the same year. A couple of them had two of those away. I know how tough those dealings would be. That's all I know."
Q: What did you say to the ACC when you revisited this subject?
Fr. Leahy:
"What I said to them was if you have interest than we need to know because the BIG EAST is going to reorganize and we have to commit certainly by November 4. So time was a real factor and I also said if you want us you have to give us an invitation you can't be `let's talk' or `we're interested'. It has to be an outright invitation. Otherwise there isn't any value in engaging in conversation."
Q: Will you need to upgrade your facilities as part of this move?
Gene DeFilippo:
"I think our (football) stadium is a great stadium. We've done a very good job of keeping it up. The new Yawkey Athletics Center and the renovation of Conte Forum are essential to this process. I think after that, facility-wise, we're in very good shape."
Q: What type of difference will this make in recruiting?
Gene DeFilippo:
"Coach (Tom) O'Brien, in particular, has stated that this will certainly be a benefit to recruiting. You'll have to ask him how much, I don't know. But we've certainly talked with Al (Skinner) and with Tom and Cathy (Inglese) about this."
Q: Was your response to the ACC instantaneous?
Fr. Leahy:
"We got a call late this morning, right before noon from the president of the Atlantic Coast Conference saying that they had had their morning conference call and the result of that morning conference call was a unanimous decision to invite Boston College to become a member. And I had already had discussed this with our board and Gene, so I knew what we would be saying. I also knew that there were two critical factors that would influence the timing of our response. One was the need to let the BIG EAST know where Boston College was. The second was to let all of you know because calls were starting to come in before we got the call from the ACC. We thought, better to give the response that we knew we were going to give eventually, so why not do it today."
Q: What did you tell (BIG EAST Commissioner) Mike Tranghese, and what was his reaction?
Fr. Leahy:
"I told him that we had received the invitation and that we were going to accept the invitation and that we would have to work out the transition period and after that I would say you really would have to talk to Mike about his reaction. I don't want to speak for him. Disappointment would certainly be a word that would be there."
Q: Was BIG EAST ready for this after the exploration with ACC first time around?
Fr. Leahy:
"I don't think they were surprised at all."
Q: How concerned are you about potential lawsuits?
Fr. Leahy:
"Well, we've never made our decisions on the basis of the threat of lawsuits and what lawsuits are in the process. We just let the lawyers take care of that. It hasn't been a factor in our decision making prior to this and it isn't a factor now. There may be lawsuits but we'll just deal with them."
