Texas A&M should concentrate on making themselves relevant on the field…not in the news.

This Big XII thing is a disaster.

Source: Pitt, Syracuse apply to ACC

By Heather Dinich
ESPN.com
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The Atlantic Coast Conference has been approached by at least 10 schools about possible membership, a group that includes the Big East's Pitt and Syracuse, both of which have tendered letters of application, a high-ranking ACC official said Saturday morning.

In addition, amid a "fluid landscape" in conference alignment, the ACC presidents have unanimously approved to increase the buyout for schools to leave the conference from $10 million-$13 million to $20 million, the source said, making it a highly unlikely scenario that any ACC teams defect from the conference.

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University athletic directors and ACC officials have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitment to the current membership, but the increased buyout will make it much more costly for them to go back on their word. The increase in the buyout was approved at the annual meeting of university presidents this past week.

Another ACC source confirmed the addition of teams is not only valid, but a very real possibility. ACC officials have declined to comment, and no sources were aware of a timetable.

This is familiar territory for the ACC, which raided the Big East before to add Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to get to its current 12-member format. Should it happen again, this move would likely be even far more difficult for the Big East to overcome.

The New York Times first reported on Friday night that the ACC was in talks with Syracuse and Pittsburgh about leaving the Big East to join the league.

If Syracuse and Pittsburgh decide to leave the Big East, it could lead to another dramatic shuffle in college athletics. Texas A&M has announced its intention to join the Southeastern Conference, leaving the future of the Big 12 in doubt.

Baylor and Iowa State have already reached out to the Big East as a backup in case the Big 12 falls apart.

Big East spokesperson John Paquette said Saturday that league commissioner John Marinatto had no comment on word that Pitt and Syracuse have inquired about membership in the ACC.

Syracuse is a founding member of the Big East, and Pittsburgh joined the league in 1982.

Mike Finn, the ACC's associate commissioner for football communications, told The Associated Press late Friday night he was unaware of any such talks and didn't know anything about the Times' report.

Former Syracuse quarterback Donald McPherson, a Heisman runner-up in 1987 when the Orange went 11-0-1, approved of the school's push for membership in the ACC.

"I like the move," said McPherson, elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009. "The landscape of college sports is rapidly changing and frankly, the Big East is not strong enough to survive it's current course.

"It's only asset the Big East has is the TV market, which may house the birthplace but has never been the soul of college football."

Heather Dinich covers ACC football for ESPN.com. Information from ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz, ESPN's Joe Schad and The Associated Press was used in this report.

Follow Heather Dinich on Twitter: @ESPN_ACC

If BigEast is to survive in football AND keep their auto bid (like the Big12) they are gonna have to add lots of teams. Have not even mentioned any teams still to be pick-off by the Big10. And I still beleive there will be six 16 team superconferences - not four. Then your playoff can be six champions plus two at large berths.

PITT and 'Cuse are pretty big potential losses…

This whole thing overall is starting to look like a major shake up coming; which we may just see some part of eventually.

In the short term, could see UCF getting a bid easily to replace one of the above teams…

For sure, kinda gives them more incentive (and pressure) to NOT lose to a Belt team.

Looks like Pitt/Cuse going ACC

ACC adding Big East's Syracuse, Pitt

The Atlantic Coast Conference has extended its northern reach, adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Now the question becomes, will the league stop there – or keep growing to 16?

The ACC announced Sunday that its council of presidents unanimously voted to accept Pittsburgh and Syracuse, a move that increases its membership to 14 and sends the Big East scrambling – again – to replace two of its cornerstone programs.

The announcement caps a turbulent week of reshuffling for the ACC. It likely will lead to another dramatic shift in college athletics and could mark the next step toward the era of 16-team superconferences.


Texas A&M already has announced its intention to join the Southeastern Conference, leaving the future of the Big 12 in doubt. And the board of regents at Oklahoma and Texas are meeting Monday to discuss the possibility of the universities leaving that conference.

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

The invitations came after Pittsburgh and Syracuse submitted letters of application to join the league, the ACC said. 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.

"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," Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor said in a release. "Overall, for Syracuse, this opportunity provides long-term conference stability in what is an uncertain, evolving, and rapidly shifting national landscape."

Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said the school's leadership "could not envision a better conference home for Pitt."

Saying the league was excited about adding to its "northern tier," Florida State President Eric Barron confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday that the ACC had received the application letters from Pitt and Syracuse.

He said 11 of 12 league presidents attended a meeting in Greensboro, N.C., last Tuesday, with the other participating by phone. During the meeting, they unanimously approved raising the exit fee to $20 million – up from $12 million to $14 million – for any member leaving the conference, a maneuver seemingly designed to keep the remaining ACC schools in the fold.

The latest moves are sure to create even more bad blood between two conferences that became embroiled in a nasty lawsuit the last time the ACC expanded by adding schools from the Big East. A multibillion dollar settlement reached in 2005 included the scheduling of nine interconference football games.

Pitt and Syracuse bring the number of programs making the Big East-to-ACC jump in the past decade to five, and Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said the most recent moves were "kind of a shock to everybody."

Syracuse was one of the original targets of a previous round of expansion by the ACC along with Miami and Boston College in 2003. The ACC ultimately added the Hurricanes and Virginia Tech for the 2004 season and brought in BC for the following season as its 12th member.

Now the question is how the ACC's latest round of expansion will affect the rest of the college sports landscape.

The future of the Big 12 remains in doubt, with Texas A&M already announcing its intention to join the Southeastern Conference. The board of regents at Oklahoma and Texas are meeting Monday to discuss the possibility of the universities leaving that conference.

There already has been speculation that West Virginia would be a target for the SEC to balance out that conference and grow to 14 members if and when Texas A&M finally joins.

Until now, the focus of this most recent round of realignment had centered on the Big 12. Oklahoma could be leaving for the Pac-12 and taking Oklahoma State with it. Texas has stated its desire to keep the Big 12 together, but the Pac-12 could be an option as well as football independence, a la Notre Dame, which competes in the Big East in all other sports.

There also have been reports linking Texas to the ACC, a move that could include Texas Tech. Other reports indicated two more Big East teams – Connecticut and Rutgers – could be under consideration by the ACC.

While the addition of Syracuse and Pitt brings the ACC to 14 members, 16 might make more sense. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has said his league is set with 12, but could reconsider if other conferences make additions.

When the Big Ten was looking to expand last summer, there was plenty of speculation about Big East schools on the Big Ten's target list.

But the Big Ten added only Nebraska from the Big 12, and a few months later the Big East announced TCU from the Mountain West Conference was joining the league next year.

Complicating matters for the Big East, different numbers of its schools play football and basketball, and they often have different agendas. The nonfootball members – which include Georgetown, Marquette and Villanova – help make it one of the nation's strongest basketball conferences. The other football-playing members are West Virginia, Rutgers, Connecticut, Louisville, South Florida and Cincinnati.
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I think UCF is definitely going to be included in this expansion, however USF may now be the best football school left in the Big East and may plead their case to not add UCF. This is definitely going to be interesting how this plays out. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe UCF was even asked to join another conference or if USF left to go to a bigger conference.

Either way, I hope this positively effects us. We all have our opinions on having Howard as the head coach but when it comes down to lobbying conference commissioners to add us to their conference, there's no one else I'd rather have fighting for me than Howard

And President Saunders - she can sweet talk anybody! If the BigEast survives, hello BigEast!

GeorgiaOwl said

And President Saunders - she can sweet talk anybody! If the BigEast survives, hello BigEast!

I hope so but don't count your chickens before they hatch. From what I've read it seems like UCF and maybe even SMU would get the nod before us. As much as it pains me to say it right now FIU is looking more attractive to these big conferences. It's going to be more of what have you done for me lately and well we all know that story.

SMU would be a natural rival to TCU who is joining next season

This just gets more and more interesting…..

National report: Iowa State reaches out to Big East

A report Saturday on ESPN.com stated that Iowa State officials have reached out to the Big East Conference about joining should the Big 12 disband.

The Cyclones were mentioned in a story detailing Pittsburgh and Syracuse, current Big East members, possibly defecting to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Chuck Sullivan, the Big East director of communications, told The Des Moines Register on Saturday that his conference would have no comment on the matter because, “so much of it is so fluid.”

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard was with the football team Friday in Hartford, Conn. Big East commissioner John Marinatto is spending the weekend in Maryland.Marinatto declined to discuss Pittsburgh and Syracuse possibly applying for membership to the ACC, or if he has a contingency plan involving Big 12 teams, when asked by reporters Saturday.

“At this point, there’s nothing we can say,” Marinatto told the Charleston Daily Mail, “other than we officially have no comment.”

Steve Malchow, senior associate athletic director at Iowa State, said that school officials — administrative and athletic — would not comment directly on the ESPN report or what effect recent conference alignment development might have on the Cyclone athletic future.

“As we have said in the past, this is much like a coaches search and we don’t comment on coaches searches,” Malchow said.

Oklahoma regents and Texas regents plan to meet Monday to discuss their conference affiliations.
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Not sure how Iowa State fits in to the Big East but I guess with TCU in the Big East that makes just as much sense

Jab979 said

GeorgiaOwl said

And President Saunders - she can sweet talk anybody! If the BigEast survives, hello BigEast!

I hope so but don't count your chickens before they hatch. From what I've read it seems like UCF and maybe even SMU would get the nod before us. As much as it pains me to say it right now FIU is looking more attractive to these big conferences. It's going to be more of what have you done for me lately and well we all know that story.

SMU would be a natural rival to TCU who is joining next season

Can we please stop with the FIU being more attractive talk.  They are having a great season so far, no doubt, but that doesn't mean much of anything when it comes to this conference realignment.  Teams have good years and bad years.  There have been plenty of teams that have had great seasons.  Ball State was 12-2 in 2008.  They beat Navy and Indiana…did you see other conferences drooling over them?  This isn't about a single season's record.  This is all about money and television.  Based on those criteria, we and FIU (as well as the rest of the Sun Belt) are all in the same position.  None of us are getting invited to a BCS conference out of all this. The best we can hope for is CUSA or a merged conference with some other schools that get left out of a super-conference.