Syracuse, Pitt ACCepted; who’s next?

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Background from yesterday here.

This morning, SportscenterU on ESPNU reported that Pittsburgh and Syracuse have officially been accepted, and that others are being considered, and Yahoo! Sports confirmed this:

But USA Today reported early Sunday that the ACC presidents had already voted on Saturday morning to accept Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the league. Citing an anonymous source, the newspaper said the ACC was still considering adding two other East Coast teams and that Connecticut and Rutgers would be the candidates.

ACC officials have scheduled a 9:30 a.m. ET Sunday teleconference but did not disclose the subject of the call.

Barron confirmed that 11 of 12 ACC presidents attended a meeting in Greensboro, N.C., on Tuesday—the other participated by phone—and unanimously approved raising the exit fee to $20 million—up from $12 million to $14 million—for any member leaving the conference.

“The great thing is that the conference is strong and committed to a unanimous commitment to staying together,” North Carolina State Chancellor Randy Woodson said. “And to the extent that this is kind of a dramatic shift in conferences, we’re trying to be proactive and stay strong.”

Also, from WRAL:

The ACC announced Sunday that its council of presidents unanimously voted to accept the two schools from the Big East. The move increases the ACC’s membership to 14 and sends the Big East scrambling to replace two of its cornerstone programs.

Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said in a release that the school’s leadership “could not envision a better conference home for Pitt.”

The ACC says it extended invitations after the schools submitted letters of application to join the league. It is unclear when the move will take effect. The Big East’s exit fee is $5 million, and schools wanting to leave must provide 27 months’ notice.

The ACC scheduled a 9:30 a.m. ET teleconference with the media.

Commissioner John Swofford said the expansion “geographically bridges our footprint between Maryland and Massachusetts.”

Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor called the ACC “a perfect fit” for a program that was one of the founding members of the Big East.

“We are pleased that Syracuse adds a New York City dimension to the ACC, a region in which we have built strong identity and affinity, and we look forward to bringing ACC games to the Big Apple,” Cantor said. “Overall, for Syracuse, this opportunity provides long-term conference stability in what is an uncertain, evolving, and rapidly shifting national landscape.”

The ACC again sees the solution as raiding the Big East. Who’s next: UConn and Rutgers or Texas and Texas Tech?

Whether we like it or not, the cozy southeastern basketball conference most of us grew up with no longer exists. One impact of this will likely be a shift away from Greensboro and Charlotte for the ACC Tournament and Championship, respectively. It won’t be suprising to see the ACC Tournament hosted by the Meadowlands or the Championship game at whatever they’re calling the new Giants Staidum nowadays.

Join the discussion on the SFN Forums and stay tuned…

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36 Responses to Syracuse, Pitt ACCepted; who’s next?

  1. packhammer 09/18/2011 at 2:30 PM #

    I feel your pain 61Packer. I share some of this sentiment. But the problem is that to a very large degree your view lost the day with previous ACC expansions. We have not played Virginia in football for years. It now has been a couple of years since playing Duke in football. I think MP has it right. I sure hope Debbie Yow brings a real commitment to cometitive excellence.

  2. Tau837 09/18/2011 at 3:19 PM #

    Say the ACC adds two more teams in the North on top of Syracuse and Pitt. The conference could then go to the pod system:

    South – FSU, Miami, Clemson, GT
    Tobacco – State, Duke, UNC, Wake
    Central – UVA, VT, Maryland, BC
    North – Pitt, Syracuse, New #1, New #2

    Depending on who the new teams are, could swap BC with one of them. For example, West Virginia would fit better than BC in the Central pod, although I don’t see the ACC taking WVU. Penn State would fit very nicely in the North pod, but I don’t see them leaving the Big Integer. I don’t relish the thought of Rutgers or UConn. UConn sounds nice for basketball, until you realize Calhoun might retire before these schools actually begin ACC play… who knows if UConn will maintain its standing in college basketball. I would guess not. The same thing might be argued about Syracuse and Boeheim, though I’d expect them to have a better chance to stay good.

    Anyway, in basketball, every team would play home and home with the others in the same pod, and would play every other team once, for a total of 18 conference games. The conference tournament would still be 4 rounds, just with no byes. Easy.

    In football, every team would play each team in its pod, plus each team in one of the other pods on a rotating basis, and one randomly selected team from a third pod, for a total of 8 conference games.

    This could set the ACC up to do something no one else has done yet… have a 4 team playoff to determine conference winner in football, rather than a single championship game. I know this wouldn’t fly right now, but perhaps it will eventually work. If not, presumably the two pod winners with the best records would meet in the championship game.

  3. 61Packer 09/18/2011 at 3:42 PM #

    My view of expansion being a negative thing never lost the day when a 20-mile away game with Duke was replaced on our football schedule with a 900-mile away game with Boston College. Or when home and away basketball games with longstanding rivals Duke, Maryland, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Virginia were eliminated (for one game only) each season.

    Instead of expansion increasing the number of desirable games we’ve had at NCSU, it’s done the exact opposite. Being a longtime Wolfpack season ticketholder, I’ve watch both football and basketball schedules get sorrier and sorrier each season. And with more teams entering the ACC, politics will dictate who gets the more desirable games each season.

    And will ticket prices remain the same? Need I say more?

  4. JSRy2k 09/18/2011 at 3:42 PM #

    I, for one, am happy ACC expansion remains along the eastern seaboard. Can’t stand these multi-timezone conferences. And face it, the last thing schools like NCSU need are any more football powers to keep our noses in the turf.

  5. JSRy2k 09/18/2011 at 3:44 PM #

    …except I’d LOVE if we could pull off Penn State! They actually have more traditional historical rivals in the ACC than in the Big Ten + 2.

  6. coach13 09/18/2011 at 6:43 PM #

    Penn State!!! Penn State!!!

  7. Howler 09/18/2011 at 8:03 PM #

    I miss the days of 8 teams, when I was a kid and knew all the coaches and players. I know those days are long gone, so any realignment that will put the Big Four in the same division will be fine with me. I don’t follow the rest of the conference very closely anyway.

  8. 61Packer 09/18/2011 at 9:53 PM #

    I do agree with you Howler, that an alignment that would put the Big Four in the same division would be fine. However, they’ve got to let us play each other again (State-Duke and UNC-WF playing each other in football and twice in b-ball each season).

    However, with ESPN’s greed for the best tv games, I somehow doubt it’ll happen. But we’ll see…….

  9. DFMo 09/18/2011 at 10:57 PM #

    One of my hopes from the expansion – addition of another conference game for a total of 9 vs the current 8. Reason for hope? Big 10 has already announced their intent, but not till 2017. Pac 12 already does and Big 12 starts this year. Call your congressman!

    http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6833142/big-ten-conference-use-9-game-league-schedule-football-2017

  10. JSRy2k 09/19/2011 at 2:13 AM #

    When does “RISK: Collegiate Power Conference” hit the stores?

  11. bcsuperfan22 09/19/2011 at 9:18 PM #

    Yukon and Rutgers simply add nothing to the conference. Both are mediocre/poor at best academically, and both have sub par football programs (Rutgers has a BAD bball program).

    The yahoos at Yukon keep claiming this is a done deal because of their success in bball (mens and womens) and its just doesnt matter. Nobody cares about womens bball/non rev sports, and mens basketball takes a back seat to football no matter who you ask. I would much rather see the ACC stay at 14 than feel the need to add these 2 schools.

    Just sit back and wait out Notre Dame and/or Penn State and/or Texas/TTU/other BIG XII. Having dealt with these people in the past, trust me, they are not the kind of opponents you want diluting the money in the conference or the kind of fans you want coming to Carter Finley.

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