SPORTS
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Lions ruin
Tourney
for Blue
By Josh Holman
DailySportsEditor
The pitching had been knocked the entire
year, but in the Big Ten Tournament, the
pitching was one of the few things that held
up. Instead, poor defense - something that
had haunted Michigan all year - was too
much to overcome, especially when its usu-
ally reliable hitting failed it in the pinch.
Michigan (30-27) saw its season come to an
end on Saturday with a 3-2 loss to Penn State.
Senior relief pitcher Tim Leveque took over a 1-
1 tie in the top of the ninth from junior starter
Bobby Garza, but his defense suffered. Fifth-
year senior first baseman Mike Sokol commit-
ted a throwing error to third on a sacrifice bunt,
and senior third baseman Brock Koman fol-
lowed with a fielding error that allowed a run to
score. Two unearned runs crossed in the inning.
"The young guys learned a valuable lesson,
and that's how important defense is," junior
catcher Jake Fox said.
Fox's RBI single in the ninth brought the
Wolverines to within one run, but Sokol struck
out swinging to end the game and the season.
"Our hitting just wasn't there," Sokol said.
AP PHOTO
Michigan catcher Jake Fox congratulates pitcher Drew Taylor after Taylor threw a complete game
against Indiana in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Michigan won the contest 7-2.
TUESDAY
MAY 27, 2003
ACC looks to
exploit Big East
J. BRADY MCCOLLOUGH
All About the Cause
Welcome to Manifest Destiny - college football
style.
Confused? Open up your high school American
History textbooks and turn to the 1830s. To sum it up, the
term "Manifest Destiny" was the United States' way of justi-
fying its immense territorial growth during the 30 years pre-
ceding the Civil War. The U.S. flexed its imperial muscles at
the expense of poor Mexico, which eventually became just
the U.S.'s little friend to the South after owning most of "
southwestern United States.
Manifest Destiny, more than anything, offered hope for
many young, adventurousAmerican citizens, who wanted to
make a name for themselves in this budding democracy.
OK, enough with the history lesson. The Atlantic Coast
Conference's recent quest to expand from nine to 12 teams
by annexing Miami (Fla.), Syracuse and Boston College
from the Big East Conference is just college football's most
recent version of Manifest Destiny. It's the way the world
works. Where there are "superpowers," there are always peo-
ple trying to join that elite status.
The ACC (the U.S.) is trying to establish itself as a college
football superpower, just like the Southeastern Conference
(Great Britain) and the Big 12 Conference (France), but this
all comes at the expense of the Big East (Mexico).
This current conflict between the ACC and Big East will
shakedown like the Alamo. If the ACC wins, which seems
very likely now, everything will change on college foot-
ball's national landscape, and the Big East will inevitably
fall apart.
But don't believe Big East Commissioner Mike Trangh-
ese, who is making this out to be some sort of tragedy for
college sports as a whole. Mike, this is a tragedy for your
conference's ability to compete on a national level in foot-
ball. It's bad for you. But boy is ita sweet deal for college
football nationally.
There are obvious winners and losers here, but that's the
nature of the game. If Miami, Syracuse and Boston College
join the ACC, the Big East will likely lose its automatic bid
to the Bowl Championship Series. How exciting is that for
See ACC, Page 12
"If we would have hit, we would have won no
matter how well we played defense."
The loss to the Nittany Lions came off the
heels of an emotional loss to Ohio State on
Thursday and an unusual day off on Friday due
to a revised tournament schedule.
Penn State's second game was postponed on
Thursday, and a scenario arose that would have
forced it to play three games on Friday. Offi-
cials did not want to force it to play that many
games, so the Wolverines waited until Saturday
after being prepared the entire day to play.
"Sitting out was an unusual experience,"
Michigan coach Rich Maloney said. "You sit in
the stands thinking you might play and then
realize you have to sit through the whole next
game. It gives you an up and down kind of
emotion that certainly didn't play in our favor."
Michigan suffered a tough 4-2 loss to Ohio
State on Thursday.
"We came to play against Ohio State but it
didn't work out," Sokol said. "Baseball is a very
humbling game. We hit probably six to eight
See BASEBALL, Page 12
'Matur: Big Ten not looking to expand
By Gennaro FElice
Daily Sporn Editor
Since the Atlantic Coast Conference extended invitations to three Big
East schools - Miami (Fla.), Syracuse and Boston College - earlier
this month, conference shuffling has been the hot topic in college sports,
especially in the Big Ten. Gossip says the Big Ten may look to expand
the II-team conference to an even dozen. But, according to Minnesota
Athletic Director Joel Maturi, the speculation is just that - speculation.
"We like who we are," Maturi said. "It's a situation where we're not
looking to expand. We like the Big Ten as it is."
Many believe that an addition to the Big Ten would force the confer-
ence to split into two six-team divisions for football. In this format, the
conference season ends ina high-revenue conference title game - a sta-
ple to many of college football's biggest conferences, including the
Southeastern Conference and the Big 12.
"We're not looking for divisions," Maturi said. "I don't think that's
something that is exciting for us in the Big Ten."
The Big Ten Conference held its routine offseason meetings in Chica-
go two weekends ago, but expansion was not a big subject.
"We didn't have any formal session about that at all," Maturi said.
"We did a lot of informal talking - more out of a curiosity of what's
happening in the ACC than discussion of expansion for the Big Ten."
Rumors of possible expansion has involved teams including Big East
members Notre Dame, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers and Big 12
See BIG TEN, Page 12
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