A week ago, I characterized ACC expansion as inevitable. This week, I'm not so sure, all of which raises the question: if ACC expansion fails, then what happens?

Someone asked me last week why I thought ACC expansion was inevitable, and I gave them a two part answer: (1) I'm cynical; (2) assuming that UNC, Duke, and UVa are against it right now, then UNC or Duke will cave, giving the ACC the 7 votes they need.

That was before the ACC held two conference calls totaling five hours early last week and didn't extend invitations to Miami, BC, and Syracuse. Now, with the momentum turning against the ACC and a possible deadlock occurring, even we cynical types have to wonder if expansion is going to fall flat.

Over the weekend, one TSL observer claiming to have a source inside the ACC said that expansion could be announced dead early this week. Good message board fodder, for sure, and it gets one thinking.

If the ACC does give up its expansion plans for now, then the membership of the two conferences will be the same, but that's about the only thing. Thanks to the scorched-earth policies of all parties involved, the ground rules -- and how the Big East should proceed from that point on -- will have drastically changed.

Now that the Canes have stood on the side of the freeway, hiked up their skirt, and shown their bare leg to every conference vehicle passing by, it's only a matter of time before somebody stops to pick them up. Miami has decided that the Big East Conference is a broken down jalopy and wants to hitch a ride with a smooth new sports car in another conference.

It's obvious that the BE in its current configuration is not satisfactory to the Canes. The question is, can the Big East remake itself into that smooth new sports car and keep the Canes in the conference? Will they even try? Should they even try?

At first, I though that it was all about the money for the Canes, but the more I thought about it, the less sense that made. A university with a yearly billion-dollar budget, sweating over the loss of one or two million dollars?

Yes, it is about the money, but I now think it's more about the security of a 12-team conference. The Hurricanes -- and various expansion forces in the ACC, most notably FSU -- have decided, for whatever reason, that 12-team conferences are the way to go, and that if you're not in one, and soon, you risk becoming irrelevant in the future of the NCAA, the BCS, or both.

(As a sidebar, as long as the Miami Hurricanes have the ability to use South Beach to bring prospective football players together with beach babes and ensure that the recruiting pipeline never runs dry, the Canes will never be irrelevant. But for some reason, they fear it.)

I think the Canes are frustrated with the Big East, a basketball conference that was created in the late 70's and since the early 90's has slowly and painfully been remaking itself into an all-sports conference driven by football. Over the years, the league's progress has been slow and steady, but for the Canes, it's obviously been too slow.

That fact was never made more clear than at the Big East meetings last month, when VT athletic director Jim Weaver and later Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese extolled the virtues of an 8- or 9-team conference, while Miami AD Paul Dee was talking to reporters on the other side of the room, saying that 12-team conferences were the wave of the future. Not just the wave of the future, but the present, as shown by the SEC and the Big 12.

So, if ACC expansion fails, and the Hurricanes, Eagles, and Orangemen have to come back to the league, what is the Big East going to do about its problems, and what is it going to do to attempt to keep the Hurricanes, and by extension the rest of the league, happy?

The status quo isn't an option. If you think the Canes have their skirts up high right now, wait and see how high they go if the Big East doesn't make any changes.

I've got one word for option 1: Yuck.

Get rid of the basketball schools. Kiss them goodbye. Jettison them. Any idea championed by Dave Gavitt and Mike Tranghese is, by nature, a bad idea. I've got nothing against those two guys, but they're basketball guys, pure and simple, and their ideas are motivated by preservation of the basketball side of the league. As commissioner, Mike Tranghese has to act in the best interests of all 14 Big East schools, and let's face it, it's that approach that has brought the Big East as we know it to the edge of extinction.

If ACC expansion fails, then the Big East football schools should exercise option 2 and run far and fast from the Big East basketball schools. Do it, do it quickly, and break off that rear view mirror, because there's nothing left back there to see.

Here's the recipe for the football-only schools, if ACC expansion falls through and the Big East is left intact:

1.) Announce you're leaving and break away as soon as possible.

2.) Get a new commissioner, one with a football background and a football-centric view of the world -- but not Jim Weaver, since he's so hung up on 9-team conferences. One report quoted a source close to UM president Donna Shalala as saying that if the Canes stayed in the league, it would be with a new commissioner, and that's just fine with me. Mike Tranghese, with his basketball background, long ago outlived his usefulness.

3.) Send written notice to Notre Dame: You're in for all sports, or you're out for all sports. Pick one. I'm in favor of letting Notre Dame keep their NBC contract for home games (I'm strange like that), but every other league game goes on the league's TV contract, and the Domers must play a full Big East schedule as defined by the league, with bowl access equivalent to all other Big East teams and full revenue sharing, just like all other Big East teams. Revenue from any BCS bids received by Notre Dame, at-large or not, must be shared with the Big East. No special deals, other than the NBC contract. Take it or leave it, and please respond within 30 days. Lack of a response will be taken as a "no."

4.) Add Louisville, immediately. The Cardinals are the only eastern BCS-caliber sports program currently not in a BCS league.

5.) Add East Carolina. The Pirates are football-crazy, and having a Big East team in the heart of ACC country would be a fine way to flip the bird at the ACC. I know many of you are not in favor of having ECU in the Big East, but I like the poetry of including a team that the ACC treats with such deep scorn, and which is located right in their midst.

6.) Speed up Temple's departure and UConn's entry, if possible. It's already going to happen soon, but if you can make it happen sooner, then do. But do NOT keep Temple, not even in the interest of more easily going to 12 teams. The half-hearted way they run their football program, and the scheduling problems that their stadium situation causes the league, are unacceptable, period.

Depending upon Notre Dame's response (it says here it'll be "no"), this will bring the league to 10 or 11 teams. The last step is to publicly announce that the Big East wants to add the one or two teams that are necessary to bring league membership to 12, and all interested schools should apply in writing within 30 days, with a white paper explaining the advantages of their addition to the league.

Call up the schools the league is most interested in and tell them, "We've already written your white paper for you. Please just sign this form, and we can start talking." Once all applications are received, pick out your top candidates, and notify the leagues of those schools that you are going to contact their teams about membership in the Big East.

Do it all above board, and do it with the full knowledge of the affected conferences.

This opens up the last one or two spots to independents, Conference USA teams, MAC teams, and even disgruntled ACC teams like FSU, GT, and Clemson, who are all pro-expansion.

Once you get to twelve teams, add a football championship game, and renegotiate the football and basketball TV contracts.

Of course, this plan is contingent on it not being financial suicide for the league, and it's also contingent on all schools involved -- including Miami -- signing commitment contracts that include massive exit fees and immediate disqualification from league championships and reduced revenue sharing, should a school announce they're leaving the league. If Miami isn't willing to sign papers to that effect, then don't go to all that trouble trying to get to 12 teams, because it's obvious that the Canes will still want out.

Will that plan get the Miami Hurricanes to lower their skirts and get back in the car? Who knows? But at least it will get the Big East moving in the right direction, instead of watching them lumber around like a dinosaur, looking like a bunch of fools. I'm still incredulous that the Big East "response" to Miami's departure plans at the Big East meetings in May was to do nothing but complain and extol the virtues of small conferences. The Big East's tactical maneuvers since then, including the lawsuit and a well-orchestrated PR campaign, have been good to excellent, but that joke of a "response" at the BE meetings was laughable.

None of this is revolutionary thinking. All one needs to do is read the TSL message boards, and you'll see the same ideas espoused by some posters there. But the key point is this: the Hurricanes want a 12-school league, and I personally also would like to see one, as long as expansion adds teams of value -- admittedly a tough challenge -- and leads to a more cohesive league, one that is more stable and contains universities that want to be a part of it for the long haul. Key points are to get rid of the basketball-only schools, change commissioners, solve the Notre Dame problem, and work toward 12 teams. That's what I think the Canes want, and what every Big East school should want.

This all assumes that a move towards a 12-team conference is really what the Canes want, and that they could be happy in a 12-team Big East. If Miami is dead-set on leaving this league, even if it does get rid of the basketball schools and move towards 12 teams, then never mind, there's no point in going through all this.

The 12-team Big East described here won't be world-beaters right off the bat, because it would take UConn, ECU, and probably other teams some time to truly be BCS-caliber football schools. After all, it took the Hokies a decade to reap full benefits of inclusion in one of the top conferences.

But it would give the league cohesiveness, stability, and a firm foundation, and they could improve from there. Big East football has certainly made great strides in the last five years, and there's no reason to think they wouldn't continue to do so.

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