Pittsburgh and Syracuse, once flagship programs of the Big East, have been accepted as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, extending the league's current membership to 14 schools, the ACC announced on Sunday morning.
Of course, this doesn't affect the Pac-12 directly. That said, the writing is on the wall. The move to superconferences IS going to happen, and a move like this only further solidifies that thought. That the Pac-12 will accept Oklahoma and Oklahoma State is probably a formality at this point, with the only drama being whether Larry Scott will be able to bring in Texas under our terms, or whether we have to settle for some kind of consolation package likely including Kansas. Geographically, we don't have as many options as the other three megaconferences (ACC, SEC, B1G) do, so it'll be interesting to see which way Larry Scott goes if 16 is the magic number and Texas is off the table.
Three quick predictions:
1. This sends TCU scrambling to get back into the Mountain West. No point in going east now.
2. The Big East is dead, football wise, but survives as a decent hoops conference. The Big Ten takes Rutgers, the SEC takes WVU, and the ACC fills out with UConn and Louisville after Texas realizes that the Pac-12 has it by the balls and relents to their demands.
3. In spite of the survival of the Big East as a basketball conference, Notre Dame sees the writing on the wall as far as getting left out of the football playoffs and joins the B1G.
From a football standpoint, the move to superconferences doesn't really bother me. I just wish we could separate football from the other sports, as there is no reason to send your volleyball or tennis team halfway across the country to satisfy football's demands.
How is this all going to play out? Talk about it here.