Virginia Tech finally gets long desired ACC bid

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Virginia Tech fans and officials spent decades gazing longingly at the Atlantic Coast Conference, hoping for a day when it could join the league made up of its former Southern Conference rivals. <br> <br> On Tuesday night, the Hokies finally got the warm welcome they had wanted for years. <br> <br> ``Virginia Tech has finally come home,&#39;&#39; athletics director Jim Weaver said. <br> <br> The Hokies were formally introduced alongside Miami as the two newest members of an 11-team ACC. During a news conference about a mile from the league&#39;s headquarters, ACC Commissioner John Swofford presented Weaver with a maroon golf shirt and a hat that each carry the conference logo. <br> <br> ``For many years, a number of people have felt that Virginia Tech was a natural fit for the Atlantic Coast Conference,&#39;&#39; Swofford said. ``I&#39;m just glad, and our league is just thrilled, that that time has finally come.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Virginia Tech had attempted several times to join the ACC because of the belief that they belonged there. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s been a constant discussion, bubbling beneath the surface for decades,&#39;&#39; said John Rocovich, rector of the university&#39;s board of visitors. ``People have always been saying and discussing (that) we really ought to be in the ACC.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> In an open letter to alumni last week, university president Charles M. Steger wrote that the school ``has made no pretense for the past 30 years that we would be a good fit for the ACC.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Some would argue the wait has been even longer, starting when Virginia Tech was left behind by seven schools who left the Southern Conference to form the ACC in 1953. <br> <br> Now, Clemson, North Carolina and Virginia are among the schools on the Hokies&#39; conference schedules. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s great,&#39;&#39; Virginia athletics director Craig Littlepage said. ``It helps to know that the competition counts toward the potential for a championship.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The Hokies had been rejected by the ACC as an expansion target in May, when the league decided to pursue Miami, Syracuse and Boston College. <br> <br> In June, Virginia Tech was one of five Big East football schools that sued June 6 to try to stop the three schools from leaving the conference. Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and West Virginia were the other plaintiffs. <br> <br> But the ACC&#39;s presidents were unable to get the necessary seven votes to send out invitations. North Carolina and Duke were opposed to the plans, while Virginia was under pressure from its state legislators to vote down any plan that didn&#39;t include the Hokies. <br> <br> Virginia Tech came into the picture as part of a compromise suggested by Virginia president John T. Casteen III. Soon the Hokies were part of the ACC and no longer plaintiffs in the lawsuit. <br> <br> ``We have acted to position Virginia Tech for the future,&#39;&#39; Rocovich said, ``and this future is the very best future that we could have.&#39;&#39;