Big East Conference founder Dave Gavitt threw his support behind a compromise plan to have only Miami join the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Gavitt’s proposal follows similar suggestions by North Carolina chancellor James Moeser and Rutgers athletic director Robert Mulcahy as administrators struggle to resolve the Big East-ACC expansion dispute.

“The ACC should agree to expand only by accepting Miami and otherwise leaving the Big East intact,” Gavitt said Tuesday in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

“The Big East and the ACC should agree to collaborate on ideas to strengthen both conferences, including the idea of an inter-conference championship games and other forms of confederation.”

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski says the ACC hasn’t distinguished itself and agrees with the plan to add only Miami.

“I hope we mend fences because we’ve obviously gone into another person’s yard with our tractor-trailer and knocked down a few trees,” Krzyzewski said.

For more than a month, the nine-team ACC has been talking about expanding by inviting three, or possibly four, Big East teams – Boston College, Miami, Syracuse and perhaps Virginia Tech. Such an expansion could lead to a lucrative conference football title

game.

However, the ACC has been unable to come up with the necessary seven votes needed to move forward with expansion. ACC schools Duke, North Carolina and Virginia are opposed to inviting BC, Miami and Syracuse.

A lawsuit was filed June 6 by five Big East schools – Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia – trying to stop BC, Miami and Syracuse from leaving. A Connecticut judge is scheduled to hear preliminary arguments Thursday in the suit.

In Tallahassee, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said Tuesday he’s prepared to intervene on behalf of Miami in the suit. Crist said Miami has the right to choose the conference it wants to play in.

“This is a fundamental dispute among athletic conferences and universities,” said Crist, who was asked by Miami to intercede. “Universities have the right to join any conference that invites them. The law does not compel Miami, or any institution, to rebuff a legitimate overture, as long as existing contractual obligations are satisfied.”

Gavitt said it’s time for the leagues to “put an end to public acrimony and to join together to restore the collegial and cooperative relationship that has existed between them for decades.”

Gavitt cited former ACC commissioners Bob James and Gene Corrigan for their “advice and counsel” as the Big East was formed and also noted that the ACC and Big East were “at the core of the formation of what now has become the Bowl Championship Series.”

Gavitt warned that college sports is at risk unless a satisfactory resolution can be found.

“Far more is at stake than the particular composition of any one conference,” Gavitt said. “If intercollegiate athletics are to remain an important part of American higher education, we must never lose sight of the greater public interest we are obligated to serve.”

On Monday, Mulcahy said, “We’d love to have Miami come back. If they have to go, stop it at that and let our conference survive.

“It’s time that this whole thing came to an end. Reasonable people should be able to sit down and come to a compromise without destroying a league.”

AP-ES-06-24-03 1902EDT