Watch Today's Press Conference Archive
May 30, 2003
Coral Gables, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – – Media members and Hurricane fans can log into REAL networks and watch today’s 1:30 press conference live from the Edgerrin James Conference room in the Hecht Athletic Center – provided by Richter Library, REAL Networks and OCSN.
Click here to watch the archive.
Atlantic Coast Conference Officials’ Site Visit To The University of Miami
Statements From The Speakers Following The Site Visit
Paul Dee, Athletic Director, University of Miami”I’d like to welcome everybody. We came today to just report on the conclusion of this visit. We’ve had a very interesting and open two days of conversations with our guests from the Atlantic Coast Conference, representatives from that conference, led by their commissioner John Swofford. I’ll have the honor to introduce everyone. We had a good visit, we talked about a lot of pertinent and relevant topics regarding the university, giving information about the university academically, athletically and then in other ways.”
“We had good conversations relating to where we are in the development of our athletic program, our student athletes, sports that we sponsor and a lot of different topics that would be important to any consideration of this type. We had good and frank conversations among ourselves. This morning we met again continuing conversations. Today, we had a tour of all of our facilities. We took a look at facilities. We talked about other topics. We had a meeting with President Shalala that lasted about an hour at her office and I would say that for the last day or so we’ve had a very good and cordial exchange between the University of Miami and the representatives of the Atlantic Coast Conference. We think those discussions went ahead very, very well.”
Dave Hart, Athletic Director, Florida State University
“Just to reinforce what Paul said, certainly from the perspective of the institutions that were represented on this site visit, we felt it was a very, very productive use of everyone’s time. We had a good exchange of information. I want to commend Paul Dee and his staff, and President Shalala, for their hospitality first of all and for their willingness to give us as much time as they did. John Swofford wanted me to spend a little bit of this time informing you about who was on this particular site visit.”
“We had representing the Atlantic Coast Conference Fred Barakat (ACC Associate Commissioner), Bernadette Glade (ACC Associate Commissioner), Shane Lyons (ACC Associate Commissioner). We have two faculty athletic representatives, Kathleen Smith (Duke) and Chuck Erhardt (Florida State) are with us today. Lee Fowler (North Carolina State Athletic Director) was with us last night and part of this morning before he had to head back to North Carolina State. Jacki Silar (Duke Sr. Women’s Administrator) from Duke also was here. I think I can speak without hesitation for everyone that this was a enjoyable visit and one in which we had a lot of questions answered and believe that the University of Miami was able to have a lot of their questions answered.”
“I want to say one thing, that this visit certainly transcends the Department of Athletics for each institution. I know I was personally very impressed with the cultural diversity that Miami enjoys and they truly are the gateway to Central and South America, which I think is exciting for any of our institutions. We came away very impressed with where the University of Miami is athletically, academically, and the potential that they hold for the future.”
John Swofford, Commissioner, Atlantic Coast Conference
“Let me reiterate what’s already been said. This has been a very productive time. This is part of our bylaws. Any time that we’re looking for the potential for expansion, we send someone from our institutions and from the conference office to sit down and get to know the potential addition to our league a little better, maybe, than we do and to give that institution the opportunity to know us a little better, as well. And I think last night and today was very productive in that regard. Any time you talk about adding people to the family – and in our league we don’t talk about that lightly because of the respect we have for the culture that’s been developed in our league – knowing the institution and where the institution is headed and what the values of that institution are as well as knowing the athletics side of things is very, very important to our presidents and our member institutions.”
“I think today has gone a long way in helping us accomplish that. This is very much a two-way street. I’ve said that often in this process. The idea of Miami and the ACC goes back to 1990 and 1991. When Florida State came into the league there was discussion of that possibility at that time and we went through this same process with Florida State. Chuck Erhardt was a part of that. Dave had not arrived in Tallahassee at that time. I think each time the ACC has expanded we’ve stretched ourselves geographically a bit more. First with Georgia Tech in Atlanta and then later with Florida State in Tallahassee. Certainly the potential is there for even a greater stretch geographically if this occurs.”
“Our process from here will be one of taking a similar site visit to Boston College and, then, a similar site visit to Syracuse. Those should be completed next week. Then we’ll have discussions about those site visits with our presidents and our presidents will be speaking with the three presidents of the three institutions with whom we’re speaking. I can’t give you, nor do I think can Paul, an exact time frame. But, obviously, the process is moving forward and we’ll see ultimately how it culminates. Obviously, there’s serious interest on our part. There’s serious interest on the part of Miami and Boston College and Syracuse in mutually evaluating where we are as a conference and where those institutions are with their programs and where we’d all be best suited for the future. I think that’s a lot of what this whole process is about. It’s taking a look at the landscape of intercollegiate athletics in the future and where we’re best suited as a conference and where the individual institutions are best suited. As I said earlier, last night and today in the case of Miami and the ACC, has been extremely helpful in moving us along that process.”
###
