Up to that point, Boston College was the only Big East member affiliated with the Catholic Church that played football in the conference.

Miami, Syracuse, and Boston College were rumored to be the three schools under consideration, and all three met with officials from the ACC regarding membership.

Things became even more surprising when, reached by phone at a conference in Switzerland, then-N.C. State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox cast a shocking last-minute "no" vote against Boston College.

Virginia Tech immediately accepted the invitation and filed court papers to get themselves out of the awkward position of suing their new conference.

The remaining four plaintiffs removed Boston College from the list of defendants and asked both BC and Syracuse to join their suit.

The remaining members of the conference moved towards establishing a $5 million exit fee and 27-month waiting period for any other schools who wished to leave in the future.

[4] It has been suggested that BC might have remained if the Big East had spun out its non-football schools and reconfigured as an eight- or nine-team league.

The Big East considered extending invitations to Penn State and Notre Dame, however neither school showed interest in joining the conference.

[6] However, this large settlement was offset by the cumulative legal fees incurred by the Big East in pursuing the litigation.

[7] Boston College joined the ACC in 2005, and was exempted from having to play football against their former conference colleagues who had been party to the lawsuit.

Boston College officials have stated that the university will not schedule games against any of their former Big East Football colleagues with the exception of Syracuse.

[10] Below are 23 national team titles that were not bestowed by the NCAA: Men's conference championships Women's conference championships Principal athletic facilities include Alumni Stadium (capacity: 44,500); Conte Forum (8,606 for basketball), known as Kelley Rink for ice hockey (7,884); the Harrington Athletics Village, which includes Eddie Pellagrini Diamond (2,500) and the Boston College Softball Field (1,000); the Newton Campus Soccer Field; and the Flynn Recreation Complex.

The Yawkey Athletics Center opened in the spring of 2005, and the Newton Campus Field Hockey Complex was completed that fall.

In 2006 Boston College received Public Recognition Awards with 14 of its sports in the top 10 percent of the nation academically.