The next domino has officially tumbled.
Wrapping up what’s been a whirlwind past 36 hours, the ACC announced Sunday morning in a press release that the conference’s Council of Presidents (COP) has unanimously voted to accept Pittsburgh and Syracuse as new members. The invitation followed the submission of letters of application from both universities within the past two days.
The ACC, which has officially poached the Big East for the second time in a decade, now stands at 14 members, although this could be their first shot in a move to a 16-team superconference.
“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,” said commissioner John Swofford. “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. With the addition of Pitt and Syracuse, the ACC will cover virtually the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States.”
“This is an exciting day for the University of Pittsburgh. We have a long history of competing and collaborating with the distinguished universities that already are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and have enormous respect for both their academic strengths and their athletic accomplishments,” said University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. “In looking to our own future, we could not envision a better conference home for Pitt and are grateful to the Council of Presidents for extending an invitation to join the ACC community.”
“We are very excited to be joining the ACC. This is a tremendous opportunity for Syracuse, and with its outstanding academic quality and athletic excellence, the ACC is a perfect fit for us,” said Nancy Cantor, Chancellor and President of Syracuse. “The ACC is home to excellent national research universities with very strong academic quality, and is a group that Syracuse will contribute to significantly and benefit from considerably. As a comprehensive, all-sports conference, the ACC provides Syracuse tremendous opportunities for quality competition and growth in all sports, while also renewing some of our historic rivalries. This move will also bolster our continued efforts to look outward, engage, and extend Syracuse’s reach to key areas of the country, including the southeast, as we grow and expand our national connections to alumni, partners and the students of the future. 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. Overall, for Syracuse, this opportunity provides long-term conference stability in what is an uncertain, evolving, and rapidly shifting national landscape.”
The release gave no details as to when the schools would be moving from the Big East to the ACC. The Big East’s bylaws state that a member institution is required to provide 27 months notice, which would push the timeline for a move to the 2014-2015 academic year. Don’t expect it to take even remotely close to that long, however, as discussions have likely taken place that involve exchanging a shortened timeline on a departure for “financial considerations”. Current, Big East bylaws call for a $5 million exit fee.
A media teleconference has been scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET, so many of these questions may be answered in short order.
“This is a very significant day for all of our student-athletes, coaches and staff at the University of Pittsburgh,” said Steve Pederson, Pittsburgh athletic director. “The strength and quality of the ACC is highly regarded by everyone at Pitt. When we set high expectations for our student-athletes in their academic, athletic and personal goals, it is important to provide every opportunity and resource to enable that success. Joining the ACC and the outstanding institutions in this conference will give every Pitt student-athlete the chance to achieve their highest aspirations.”
“Today is a day that we will remember for years to come,” SU AD Daryl Gross said. “We are truly excited that academically and athletically we will be a member of the ACC, one of the nation’s premier collegiate athletic conferences. As New York’s College Team, we plan to compete at the highest level across all of our sports and help to enhance this great conference.
We would go into what this official move means for the conference landscape, but we already did that. Suffice to say, it’s the second -- with Texas A&M-to-the-SEC being the first -- of what could be myriad dominoes tumbling in the next few weeks and months that could, and likely will, change the face of college football forever.