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 those two schools, a move that increases its membership to 14 and sends
the Big East scrambling—again—to replace two of its cornerstone programs.
“We are constantly evaluating the competitive landscape to ensure the
conference’s viability for years to come, and this, I believe, has staying
power,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford said on a conference call.
ACC Commissioner John Swofford says he’s very comfortable with 14 teams.
(US Presswire)
“First of all, we are very comfortable with this 14,” he added. “The only
thing I would add to that is that we are not philosophically opposed to 16. But
for now we are very pleased with this 14. We think it is just an excellent
group.”
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.
“I can say that in all my years of collegiate athletics administration,
I’ve never seen this level of uncertainty and potential fluidity in schools and
conferences,” Swofford said. “Schools, they’re looking for stability, and when
that stability doesn’t exist, for whatever reason, as long as that’s going on, I
think the conferences that appear to be stable moving forward are going to
receive inquiries from schools that are desirous of having that kind of
stability.”
Swofford said “double-digit numbers of schools” recently expressed
interest in possibly joining the ACC, but declined to identify them. When asked
if any other Big East members could be targets for further expansion—published
reports indicate Connecticut and Rutgers could be under consideration—Swofford
said “I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to go there.”
University of Connecticut President Susan Herbst said in a statement that
realignment speculation “is not close to being over, so we need to have some
patience.
“UConn is a proud charter member of the BIG EAST and we have taken a lead
role in the league’s success over the years,” she said. “However, it is my
responsibility as President that we stay in constant communication and be
actively involved in discussions with our counterparts from around the country
to ensure the successful long-term future of our university’s athletic
program.”
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.
The ACC said its invitations were issued after Pittsburgh and Syracuse
submitted letters of application to join the league. It is unclear when the
schools will begin competing in the league, with Swofford saying “we will fully
respect the bylaws of the Big East Conference” and that “whatever fits within
those bylaws is when we would expect them to join the Atlantic Coast
Conference.”
[Related: College football realignment a study in greed]
The Big East’s exit fee is $ 5 million, and schools wanting to leave must
provide 27 months’ notice.
“The Big East has been Pitt’s conference home for nearly 30 years. It has
been a good home that we will leave with many fond memories and many strong
friendships,” Pitt chancellor Mark Nordenberg said on the call. “All of us are
committed to working with (Big East commissioner John Marinatto) to make this a
smooth transition.”
Swofford said adding two schools allows the league to renegotiate its
12-year, $ 1.86 billion television contract that began this season, “and we’re
confident that will have a positive impact.”
The moves also raise the possibility that the ACC basketball tournament
could add to its rotation Madison Square Garden, the longtime site of the Big
East’s tournament. Atlanta is hosting the tournament this season before it is
scheduled to return to Greensboro, N.C., from 2013-15.
“I don’t think there’s any question that taking a look at New York and
Madison Square Garden would be very appealing for Atlantic Coast Conference
basketball fans—and even moreso now with even more teams in closer
proximity,” Swofford said. “With that being the media center of the world, so
to speak, we’d probably be remiss if we didn’t think of it in those terms.”
Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski called the moves “a real coup for the
ACC,” and Duke athletic director Kevin White said Pitt and Syracuse “provide
the best fit—at the right time—for the ACC.”
Swofford confirmed that the ACC unanimously approved raising the exit fee to
approximately $ 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.
“I look at that, as I think our presidents do, as actually a show of
solidarity and confidence in each other,” Swofford said, “but it’s also set in
terms of what we think, in losing a member, the various tangible and intangible
costs may be.”
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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.
“I think we certainly expect that there will be collegial treatment,”
Syracuse Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor said.
Pitt and Syracuse bring the number of programs making the Big East-to-ACC
jump in the past decade to five. 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.
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.
In addition to the reports of interest in Rutgers and UConn, there also have
been reports linking Texas to the ACC, a move that could include Texas Tech.
Swofford declined to discuss specifics about Texas except to say that “it’s an
outstanding institution with a tremendous athletic program.”
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. 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.
AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo in Tallahassee, Fla., contributed
to this report.
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