The Atlantic Coast Conference expansion fiasco and the new Harry Potter adventure share a lot in common. Both feature outlandish plot twists. Both make you think you know what's going to happen, only to discover you have no clue.

The main difference between the two is that Potter author J.K. Rowling writes fiction, and the ACC-Big East saga has been all too real.

Miami athletic director Paul Dee made it clear from the outset that the university intended to explore life outside the Big East Conference in order to find more money. Miami, he insisted, had no other reason to look.

Miami needed more money for non-revenue sports.

Miami thought a move to the ACC would cut down its travel bills.

Miami wanted the revenue that a championship game in the ACC could provide.

In the last chapter of "Donna Shalala and the Order of the Phoenix," however, there proved to be one final, wholly unexpected turn.

Miami's decision stopped being strictly about the money.

In the end, Shalala, the Miami president and the little lady who started this war (to paraphrase President Lincoln's comment about Harriet Beecher Stowe), had to decide whether she felt comfortable staying in the Big East as much as she had to make a financial decision. Once the ACC presidents decided on June 25 to invite only Miami and Virginia Tech, the equation changed. Miami could measure life in the Big East without its toughest football rival.

Based on the merits, the ACC no longer held any advantages, monetary or otherwise, for Miami over the Big East. In fact, the ACC couldn't offer Miami what the university could get by staying put.

Originally, Miami wanted to keep a presence in the northeast, where the university has a strong alumni base. That's why Miami insisted that Boston College and Syracuse come along to the ACC. However, the league, after an improbable debate involving lawsuits and governors, decided not to invite either school. Boston College and Syracuse are staying in the Big East.

Miami wanted revenue from a conference championship game. If, at the ACC's behest, NCAA legislation is passed that will allow conferences with 10 or 11 members to stage such a game, there's no reason the Big East won't expand, too.

Miami wanted a better shot at BCS revenue. With Virginia Tech gone, who in the Big East was going to challenge Miami on a yearly basis? None of the teams the Hokies left behind appear prepared to do so. In the Big East, Dee wouldn't have write that BCS share in his budget in pencil. He could have gone ahead and whipped out the Sharpie.

The ACC promised Miami a sound future: excellent universities, a flowing revenue stream, great basketball tradition. Miami's life in the ACC seems happily ever after.

However, it became quickly evident in the final few pages of this saga that Miami would find the same in the Big East, and without the angst, not to mention the $4 million cost of the move ($1 million to the Big East as a lovely parting gift, $3 million to get in the door of the ACC).

At the final moment, it came down to whether Shalala would feel comfortable staying in the Big East, foregoing and forgetting the enmity and the bluster, governmental and otherwise, of the past several weeks. She decided to leave for the ACC, but rest assured of one thing: It stopped being about the money, which is the most unexpected plot twist of them all.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer for ESPN.com. E-mail him at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.