AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — The ACC has awarded its annual baseball tournament to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for three years starting in 2011.
Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Jacksonville and Greenville all had lobbied for the tournament. The 2011-13 editions will be played at BB&T Coastal Stadium, the Carolina League home of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, an Atlanta Braves farm team.
The tournament will be played later this month in Durham and in 2010 in Greensboro at NewBridge Bank Park. Jacksonville hosted the tournament from 2006 to 2008.
"We received very good bids, all very competitive and all very equal," said Davis Whitfield, the ACC's associate commissioner for championships. "In the end, it was a matter of splitting hairs over the sites. Myrtle Beach has some appeal because of where it was within our conference footprint."
Whitfield said travel considerations were part of the decision.
"The economy came into the discussion," he said.
Also at its annual meeting Wednesday, the ACC voted to cap football travel squads for league games, a cost-cutting measure that should save schools thousands each year. The measure takes effect this fall.
Other Bowl Championship Series conferences have a 72-man limit on travel rosters. The ACC limited its title game teams to 72 players, but previously had no cap on the number of athletes who could travel and dress for league games.
A proposal to increase the number of conference basketball games from 16 to 18 didn't pass Wednesday. The measure would have made scheduling easier and reduced the number of payout games for ACC schools. But Karl Hicks, the conference's associate commissioner for basketball, said coaches wanted to keep their options flexible for lining up strong intersectional games.
The league also gave commissioner John Swofford authority to push for an early signing day for football. Coaches hope Swofford can get a December signing date passed at the Conference Commissioners Association meeting next month in Colorado Springs, Colo.
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