How Virginia Tech and Mark Warner Blackmailed The ACC

How's expansion working out for you now, John Swofford? After Virginia was pummeled by USC, Maryland could only muster a seven-point victory against Delaware and the ritual collapses of Clemson and Virginia Tech came earlier than usual, the ACC is the laughingstock of college football -- not what the commish expected when he "greatly improved" the conference by expanding to 12 teams in 2003.
The ACC has just one team ranked in this week's AP poll (#20 Wake Forest) and the conference has become a punchline on every college football telecast. So, I figured it'd be a great time to look back on how we got into this mess in the first place. Here's as short a version as can be told:
In an effort to make more money, the ACC decided to expand from nine to twelve teams. This would supposedly provide two main benefits. First, the conference would gain a foothold in new television markets. Secondly, with 12 teams, the ACC would become eligible to hold a conference championship game in football. Rumors of adding Notre Dame into the conference began the expansion talk in 2002, but the main discussions started in 2003 when word leaked that the ACC was planning a Big East raid.
The three schools the ACC had on its wishlist were Boston College, Miami and Syracuse. Miami was the main target, Syracuse was the next most desirable and Boston College was thrown in to get the 12th team and to open up the Boston television market to the conference. Virginia Tech was not considered.
Seven of the ACC's nine schools wanted to expand, with Duke and UNC being the only hold outs (wanting to preserve the basketball tradition of the conference). The nays from the Tobacco Road rivals didn't matter though, as seven votes was the threshold for approval. It was all but assured that the three-team expansion would be voted in. But then UVA changed its mind.
Virginia Tech, which hypocritical bluster that many politicians would find uncouth, spent months decrying the ACC's planned poaching of the Big East, all while privately begging to be included. At one point, Hokie officials went to Greensboro to meet with ACC brass. The meeting lasted 28 minutes. After they were rebuffed, Virginia Tech joined a lawsuit that claimed the ACC was "conspiring to destory" the Big East. The five Big East institutions which brought the suit reportedly asked for well over $200 million.
However, just as the Miami/BC/Syracuse expansion was set to be approved, a wealthy donor who went to both VT and Virginia got the ear of Virginia Governor Mark Warner and convinced him to somehow get Virginia Tech added to the expansion roster instead of Syracuse. Warner agreed and began a process of political blackmail to get the state university, UVA, to vote against a Hokie-less expansion. From a recent piece on the expansion from the Hampton Roads Daily Press:

"[Virginia] President John Casteen was always supportive (of Tech), but his board got a little wobbly," Warner says, referring to the university's Board of Visitors, members of which are appointed by the governor.
"I had to refresh the memory of some board members that they serve at the pleasure of the governor," Warner says with a smile. "That this was not about U.Va. versus Tech, ... it was in the best interest of the state.
"After a few candid conversations with a couple of board members, I think they understood. And the board stood solid."

For 11 days, UVA held the ACC hostage. With their holdout, the vote was 6-3 in favor of expansion. It's worth noting that Duke or UNC could have approved the BC/Miami/Syracuse plan at any time, but they chose to stay opposed to expansion, which allowed Mark Warner and his cronies on the UVA board to strong-arm the conference into letting in Virginia Tech. Eventually, the other schools capitulated, Syracuse was dropped and the school nobody wanted was suddenly in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
This led to classy quotes from those associated with Virginia Tech, such as:

Expansion was going to happen, and it was going to happen with Virginia Tech, period."
-- Dave Braine, former VT athletic director

It only took a sitting Governor strong-arming the board of a state university to do it but, yeah, Dave Braine, VT's ascension to the ACC was pre-ordained. Jackass.
In the five years since the expansion, the move has been universally dismissed by everyone outside of Blacksburg, VA. Miami has been a non-factor in football, the TV contract money increased, but had to be divided 12 ways instead of nine, and the conference championship game has been a failure at the gate and in the ratings. That doesn't concern ex-Governor and Senate-hopeful Mark Warner though:

"As governor, you're called some good names and some not-so-nice names. But even during the worst part of the tax debate, I wasn't called as bad ... names as I was on some of the (Virginia) message boards: 'Raise my taxes, but don't let the Hokies into the ACC.'
Many times, I hear 'You're a blankety-blank Democrat, but I'm still going to vote for you because you got our Hokies into the ACC.'

If I were Warner, I wouldn't count on those Hokie votes come November. You know, because convicted felons can't vote.