Back in 2004, rumors abounded for months about the Atlantic Coast Conference expanding to a 12-team conference. In 2005, the ACC seemed complete with the additions of Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College – all programs from the Big East conference.
In 2011, the ACC once again stripped two teams from the Big East, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. But this time, ACC Commissioner John Swofford wasted no time.
“I was surprised because it happened a little quicker than last time,” football coach Tom O’Brien said Monday during his weekly press conference. “Having been through this (at Boston College in 2005), there’s all those false rumors out there going back and forth.”
While Big East officials might still be trying to pick up the pieces from the loss of two perennial powerhouses in college basketball over the past few seasons, those associated with the ACC are trying to figure out one resounding question – how big of an impact will the two additions be for both conferences?
Impact for the Atlantic Coast Conference
Just from a competition standpoint, both the Orange and Panthers add depth to the basketball schedules for any ACC team.
In basketball, Syracuse has a rich history. While the Orange have only won one NCAA tournament championship, in 2003, they have appeared in the championship game three times, the Sweet Sixteen 19 times and the tournament itself an astounding 34 times.
Though Pitt does not possess Syracuse’s tradition of basketball, the Panthers have also had success in the last decade. Over the last 10 years, Pitt has secured a spot in the NCAA tournament every year and has finished in the sweet sixteen or better in five of those contests.
Swofford mentioned how the basketball scene might change in the latter part of the year, with Syracuse playing in Madison Square Garden.
“Taking a look at New York and Madison Square Garden would be very appealing for Atlantic Coast Conference basketball fans, now moreso with more teams in closer proximity,” Swofford said. “We’d probably be remiss if we didn’t think of it in those terms.”
The expansions in 2004 and 2005 were meant to add better football teams to the ACC and gain more publicity in the television world. While teams like Miami and Boston College have not exactly lived up to those standards in recent years, Virginia Tech has been a force to contend with. Since the ACC expanded, it has won four conference championships.
Members of the media and fans alike believe that this go-around with expansion was to boost men’s basketball. However, redshirt junior wide receiver Tobais Palmer believes the addition of both teams to the conference, Pitt in particular, should bring excitement to ACC football.
“Seeing State playing Pittsburgh last year, they bring a lot of positive energy, so that’s exciting,” Palmer said. “Syracuse is a pretty good team as well, but who knows what both of them might bring. You never know, and different teams bring different things when they enter a new conference.”
Redshirt senior linebacker Audie Cole said the addition of the two teams will not only add to the excitement, but also to the depth of the teams in the conference overall.
“I think adding Syracuse and Pitt will make things a lot tougher,” Cole said. “It’s not just two more teams being added to the schedule, they are two teams that will increase the playing level for the program.”
From a marketing standpoint, the addition also helps the conference in a big way.
Last year, the ACC signed a contract with ESPN. Starting this year, its games will be televised on the network. While the conference cannot go to the open market following this deal, it can reopen its television contracts with other broadcasting companies to gain more profit.
The expansion also means the ACC will gain access to the New York and Pittsburgh markets, which are historically sports-heavy. With football stadiums that both hold more than 50,000 fans and men’s basketball arenas that seat more than 12,000, the ACC will be marketing heavily in those areas.
Impact for the Big East
While the expansion of the ACC might be yet another crushing blow for the Big East, the conference has survived worse. The only difference this year was how quickly the ACC moved in taking the teams without many rumors flying throughout the media.
After all is said and done, the departures of both Syracuse and Pittsburgh will leave an already deficient football conference with only seven schools with football programs. The seventh school, Texas Christian University, will not join the conference until the 2012 season.
The conference will remain a basketball powerhouse with teams like Villanova, UConn , Georgetown and Louisville, but might struggle to bring in big name football schools with no depth outside of Rutgers and West Virginia.
Speaking of the Mountaineers and Scarlet Knights, the two teams have been the subject of spreading rumors about more expansion coming for the ACC, along with the Huskies.
While there are still several pieces to the puzzle left to figure out for the project Swofford has begun with the ACC, he made one thing very clear – further expansion is not out of the question.
“We’re comfortable with this 14,” Swofford said. “But we’re not philosophically opposed to 16.”
