By Mark Long
The Associated Press

MIAMI - Mike Tranghese's first significant act as Big East commissioner in 1991 was to form a football league. His last one might be trying to save the conference. It won't be easy.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has targeted three Big East schools, with Miami at the forefront, in an effort to expand to 12 teams - a move that would drastically alter the Big East and quite possibly the rest of college football.

The Big East's annual meetings begin Saturday in Ponte Vedra, and the first priority will be to hear counteroffers to the ACC's expansion proposal.

"This is all about Miami," Tranghese said Thursday. "If Miami goes, people are going to go. If Miami stays, we'll stay intact. As I have said, Miami is the jewel in all of this. What I'm trying to do is preserve the current structure.

"I assume our schools will talk about every conceivable approach, and we have to come to some consensus about what it is that Miami wants to do. Miami is going to drive the engine."

The Big East is prepared to reorganize the conference's makeup and its revenue distribution package, several league officials said. But will anything be enough to keep the Hurricanes from jumping to the more financially lucrative ACC and taking Syracuse and Boston College with them?

"It behooves all of us to do what we can to keep the current Big East as it is," Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said. "I'm not sure just what it is that's driving it. If it's money, then we'll discuss that in the Big East meetings this weekend and try to do everything we can to keep our current conference intact."

The Big East could sever ties with its non-football members to create a league in which all eight teams play football and basketball. Seton Hall, Villanova, Georgetown, Providence and St. John's would be left to find or create a new conference.

The Big East might then try to add four schools to become a 12-team superconference, which would allow it to split into two divisions and add a moneymaking football title game. The Big East could try to raid Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis and South Florida from Conference USA, or possibly court ACC powerhouse Florida State and/or Notre Dame to spearhead the expanded conference.

Landing Notre Dame might be too ambitious. A member of the Big East in basketball, the Fighting Irish are one of the few independents left in football. They have their own TV contract with NBC, a special deal to get into the BCS and what looks like a ton of leverage if they care to be wooed.

"They view their football independence as being very, very important," Tranghese said. "They've told us that from the start. They've never wavered."

Notre Dame sports information director John Heisler said AD Kevin White would have no comment until after the Big East meetings.

More important for the Big East is to keep Miami - something that will depend largely on money.

The ACC splits its television revenue more evenly than the Big East, makes more money from basketball and hopes to get a more lucrative television contract with a 12-team league.

The Big East will try to counter this weekend by changing its revenue distribution plan to one more like the ACC's and could increase bowl appearance fees and create other financial incentives to take care of Miami. That might mean less money for some other schools, but the conference would survive.

"The focus at this point is how can the conference remain strong as it is and how it can be stable," West Virginia assistant athletic director Mike Parsons said.

That means keeping Miami.

"We need to do whatever we can to keep them," Weaver said.

Without Miami, Syracuse and Boston College, Big East football would suffer considerably - and may be headed for the same fate as the Southwest Conference, which disbanded in 1995 after its top teams left to form the Big 12.

If the Big East fails to remain intact, the Bowl Championship Series would pull its automatic berth - and $13 million in guaranteed revenue. That would leave the remaining Big East teams scrambling to find new homes.

Pittsburgh probably would try to join the Big Ten, leaving the conference with Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Rutgers and Temple and two options: dissolve football entirely or try to rebuild by luring other schools from around the country.

Connecticut might be the Big East's biggest loser in the move. The Huskies, who already have strong basketball programs, are set to replace Temple in the Big East in 2005. The university switched to Division I-A last season, built a $90 million stadium and have watched season ticket sales slow since talks of ACC expansion - and possibly Big East elimination - began.

UConn's losses might just be the beginning for the entire conference.

"I think we have a 50-50 chance of maintaining the current balance of our league," Weaver said. "When you analyze it, Miami is better off in the Big East than the ACC if the money issue can be addressed. Why would you want to go to a conference where you'd have to go through a playoff game to get to the national championship game?

"I think the Big East has been pretty good for Miami in the sense of being an avenue to play for all the marbles."