Syracuse Univ. men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim, “seeking to clarify statements made by SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor,” said that the school will “never play an ACC home game in New York City,” according to Mike Waters of the Syracuse POST-STANDARD. Boeheim said, “That was never a part of us getting in the ACC. It never was. It was never in the discussion. We absolutely would not take conference games to New York City. It was never the intent.” Cantor Tuesday said that she “had discussed the possibility of playing certain conference home games in New York City in her conversations with ACC commissioner John Swofford prior to the ACC extending an invitation” to the school. Cantor: “We haven’t gotten that far, but we absolutely have plans to do that -- absolutely.” She added, “I wanted to make sure that (the ACC was) interested in playing competitions in the New York City area, because that’s very important to us. We see ourselves as New York’s college team.” However, Boeheim said that Cantor, “while discussing the prospect of playing the ACC Tournament in New York, didn’t mean to include playing regular season ACC games.” Syracuse has already “scheduled some ‘home’ football games at the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey.” But Boeheim said, “With the football packages, it might be the only way to get Notre Dame to play and you make more money there. If Duke comes here (for basketball), we’re going to make more money playing here than in New York City” (SYRACUSE.com, 9/28).
CHANGING THE CHANNEL: In Syracuse, John O’Brien reported SU had “voted to accept a TV deal that the Big East turned down in August.” Cantor said that the decision “played in to SU’s thinking about the ACC.” Cantor: “Certainly, we had hoped it (the TV deal) would go through. Obviously, when you think about the stability of what was offered with the ACC, that was attractive to us.” She added, "Looking forward, we saw an opportunity to go and we felt this was a tremendous fit for us, and we felt that from a fiduciary standpoint the right thing to do in terms of stability of the conference” (Syracuse POST-STANDARD, 9/28).
