The Atlantic Coast Conference announced yesterday that it will expand membership from 12 to 14 teams, accepting Pittsburgh and Syracuse into the conference.
"The ACC has enjoyed a rich tradition by balancing academics and athletics, and the addition of Pitt and Syracuse further strengthens the ACC culture in this regard," conference commissioner John Swofford said during a teleconference yesterday.
The ACC Council of Presidents unanimously approved applications from Pittsburgh and Syracuse, two former Big East fixtures, early Saturday morning. The move capped more than a year-and-a-half of discussion from the ACC's "4-4-4 committee," which includes four presidents, four athletic directors and four faculty representatives. Swofford said the group had been "quietly active in terms of evaluating the college landscape," while toying with a general recommendation for league expansion. The committee only elected to take definitive action the past week, however, meeting late last Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
The ACC's action reflects a college system in flux, as conference realignment has become increasingly necessary for survival. Nebraska bolted from the Big 12 to the Big 10 in June 2010, precipitating a series of conference shifts. That same summer, The Pac 10 became the Pac 12 after absorbing Utah and Colorado and BYU left the Mountain West. Currently, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Texas are all considering cutting ties with the Big 12, and TCU will join the Big East in 2012. Although Swofford said his own conference moves were not in direct response to any particular event, he also acknowledged the general instability college sports.
"When you look over the past year or so and you see the movement with the Pac-12 that could potentially have gone further and may still, the Big Ten expanding, the Southeastern Conference expanding, all of that comes into play," Swofford said. It is "not necessarily in a measurable kind of way, but our interest is always focused on what is best for us."
Likewise, individual programs feel that same pressure to switch conferences or be left without one.
"The prospect of further change has never been more pronounced in intercollegiate athletics," Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said during the teleconference. "It has touched every conference and directly or indirectly has touched every member of every conference, and what that means is that any university leader involved in intercollegiate athletics ... [must be] appropriately attentive to the changing landscape and institutional opportunities that might need to be pursued."
Swofford said his conference received "double-digit" inquiries from schools interested in ACC membership, but Pittsburgh and Syracuse both particularly appealed to the conference from an academic and athletic perspective. Academically, both schools are major research institutions and are "considered exceptional institutions of higher learning," he said. Athletically, Pittsburgh and Syracuse field traditionally successful teams, particularly in one of the ACC's most historically competitive sports - basketball.
The ACC has captured 12 men's basketball national championships, including five titles during this decade alone. Pittsburgh has won two men's basketball national championships, 10 regular season conference championships, and appeared in 10 straight NCAA tournaments. Syracuse also owns a national championship and eight conference regular season titles.
The ACC's performance in college's other major revenue sport - football - has been more lackluster during recent years. The conference has not won a football national championship since 1999, but Pittsburgh and Syracuse are both traditionally legitimate title contenders. Pittsburgh has had claims to 9 national titles, and Syracuse has won once.
Syracuse's and Pittsburgh's most critical advantage, however, may be its geography.
"Pittsburgh and Syracuse also serve to enhance the ACC's reach into the states of New York and Pennsylvania and geographically bridges our footprint between Maryland and Massachusetts," Swofford said. "With the addition of Pitt and Syracuse, the ACC will cover virtually the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States."
The ACC's growing monopoly on the east coast expands its exposure, as well as its markets. Syracuse is the only BCS team in New York, and Pittsburgh gives the ACC a Pennsylvania presence. Adding two new teams also allows the conference to renegotiate its current television contract with ESPN in terms Swofford said "will have a positive impact."
Swofford carefully avoided, however, citing money as the driving factor behind his conference's realignment.
"I think there's a perception sometimes that conferences are nothing more than groupings of schools that get together for the sole purpose of generating the most money," Swofford said. "As important as that is, there are a lot of other reasons that conferences are together ... I think we are together for the right reasons"
This is not the first time universities have defected from the Big East in favor of the ACC. Both Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East in July of 2004, and Boston College followed a year later. The Big East now employs a clause which requires exiting schools to give 27 months notice and pay $5 million before leaving. Although Nordenberg indicated that 27-month waiting period may be negotiable, it is unclear when the schools will officially join the ACC.
Swofford also said he was "not philosophically opposed to 16" teams, but is at least temporarily satisfied with his conference's current 14 members.
"Again, let me say how pleased we are to have Pitt and Syracuse join the Atlantic Coast Conference," Swofford said. "This is indeed a monumental day in the history of our league"
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