Thursday afternoon, the Miami Hurricanes held a press conference and proved without a doubt that they are ready for ACC membership. In fine ACC teleconference fashion, the Canes announced � nothing.

That's right. No "we accept the ACC's invitation," no "we reject the ACC's invitation," just:

"The Board of Trustees Executive Committee has met and had a long discussion about the proposal from the ACC to switch conferences. We did not make a decision today."

Here we go again. The ACC expansion roller coaster rattled into another sharp turn with Miami's press release, which said that the Big East had sent a list of proposals to the Canes, proposals which Miami had to take a look at, along with an unexpected ACC expansion plan of going to 11 teams instead of 12 or 10, both of which Miami had studied:

"The Big East has informally sent a proposal, or at least a list of proposals, to us and we feel a responsibility to review them. We also had not analyzed the Virginia Tech/Miami sequence. We had done numbers on Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami. We had done numbers on Miami alone. But we had not anticipated that Virginia Tech and Miami would be the only two invitees, so we have to finish our analysis under some direction and questions that the Board of Trustees have raised. We will finish our due diligence by Monday and announce our decision on Monday."

While Miami's refusal to accept the ACC's invitation looks at first blush to be a temper tantrum because of the ACC's refusal to extend invitations to Miami's Big East defection buddies, Syracuse and Boston College, it may or may not be more than that.

But we're not here to try to unwind the machinations in the minds of UM president Donna Shalala and UM athletic director Paul Dee. Good luck on that. What I'd rather discuss is how this impacts Virginia Tech.

The answer? It doesn't.

When I first heard of Miami's waffling, my mind started spinning. What were the Big East proposals? Were the Hokies hearing the same proposals? Would Tech withhold acceptance of the ACC's offer to listen to last-ditch proposals to save the Big East? Would VT's entry into the ACC drag on a little longer?

None of that matters.

I got on the horn with some of my better sources and confidants, two of them associated with VT and two of them in the media. And in all four conversations, the following themes were present:

1.) Virginia Tech doesn't give a Hoo's butt what Miami wants to do. The Hokies are ACC-bound.

2.) The ACC's offer to VT is not dependent upon what Miami does.

3.) ACC officials are glad to have VT and are saying the Hokies are in. It's a (pardon the expression) done deal.

"You've got to remember," one source said to me, "The [VT] Board of Visitors is full of people who have wanted to be in the ACC for decades. They don't care what Miami is thinking. Tech's going to the ACC and not looking back."

And the ACC, likewise, is not looking back or pulling the offer to VT. Check your local papers today, and you'll see heart-warming quotes from ACC officials, some on the record and some off, about how they back VT's entry into the league and think that the Hokies are a perfect fit for the conference.

I'm told that VT has accepted the ACC's offer, and the reason they're delaying an announcement about it is two-fold:

1.) The ACC and VT wanted Miami to go public with their acceptance first. Why, I have no idea. It doesn't have anything to do with VT's Big East exit fees. The Hokies are responsible for those, whether Miami goes first or not. VT's 1999 membership contract with the Big East said that VT was exempt from exit fees if another Big East team left before July of 2001, but July of 2001 came and went, so that no longer applies.

2.) The Hokies want to delay their press conference until after the ACC has their press conference welcoming any new members. Sources tell TSL that the ACC's press conference won't be until -- get this -- Tuesday, July 1st, at 7:30 pm. So you might be waiting a long time before you hear the quotes of "It's really great to be here" from VT.

VT's ACC invitation is solid and isn't going away. Let's remember, the ACC was given the chance to vote on Syracuse and Boston College, and they rejected them for membership. They did not reject Virginia Tech. That tells you that 7 schools out of 9 thought VT was good for the conference -- 7 out of 7, if you subtract unconditional expansion opponents Duke and UNC -- but 7 out of 9 didn't feel the same about Boston College or Syracuse. When it came to those two schools, the Orlando Sentinel reported that NC State sided with Duke and UNC and blocked the Eagles and Orangemen.

Thanks, Wolfpack, sorry for that little gesture from Chris Kinzer back in 1986.

Knowing that inviting VT and rejecting BC and Syracuse would anger Miami, the ACC presidents did it, anyway. They want the Hokies, folks. They want Miami, too. They voted, and they're not looking back.

There are some crazy rumors out there. One says the Big East football teams, minus Tech, are going to pluck FSU, Clemson and GT from the ACC, add Notre Dame and Penn State � um, quit laughing. Quit laughing, okay? This is a serious column.

The ACC is getting a heavy dose of what the Canes are about: self-interest, power, and attention. After dragging 22 other schools through this mess -- 13 Big East schools and 9 ACC schools -- Miami is throwing a hissy fit because they didn't get what they wanted. I can picture South Park's Eric Cartman, who bears a strong resemblance to Miami AD Paul Dee, voicing one of his many signature lines: "Screw you guys. I'm going home."

Hey, Miami, in case you don't have the brains to recognize it, here's what's going on. It's called a compromise. You know what a compromise is? It's when multiple parties are negotiating, and they come to a solution that none of them are happy with. That's a compromise. ACC commish John Swofford and ACC expansion proponents didn't get what they wanted (expansion to 12), Syracuse and BC didn't get what they wanted (ACC invitations), and you, Miami, didn't get what you wanted (ACC membership with your cronies, BC and Syracuse). Just do like everybody else and sign on the dotted line.

Even Virginia Tech didn't get what they wanted (to be left alone in the Big East). Fortunately for Tech, they got something better: membership in a real conference, one that will charge them the standard entry fees and immediately involve them in revenue sharing, instead of setting up a special deal to screw them out of $9 million, like the Big East did.

But, although that rant felt good, I'm getting way off-topic. For those Hokie fans out there that are worried about Miami rejecting the ACC's offer, about the ACC pulling Tech's offer, or about Tech not accepting until they find out what the Big East is up to, you need to do one thing: chill out.

Quit worrying. The Hokies are ACC-bound, and, I repeat, they DO NOT CARE what Miami does. After 50 years, Tech is going home. The Big East is not home, and the Canes have shown how much loyalty to VT they have. They're positively Louisville-like in their attitude towards Virginia Tech.

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