Syracuse and Pittsburgh made a big splash in the world of college athletics moving from the Big East to the ACC
By MICHAEL SMITH
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 18, 2011
A big discussion in college athletics today is the slew of teams jumping from conference to conference. Sadly, it is college football’s twisted playoff system that ruins it for everybody else.
Last month, Syracuse and Pittsburgh made the move from the Big East to the ACC. While the ACC is undoubtedly the better football conference, the Big East is arguably the best conference in basketball. Both Pitt and Syracuse are more known for being basketball programs than football programs, but they made the decision to move conferences in an effort to gain notoriety as football schools.
This move will also put a damper on the Syracuse-Georgetown rivalry, a rivalry that is one of the best in college basketball. It is hard to have a rivalry in college basketball with a non-conference opponent because they don’t play two times a year.
While it is a decision that has been questioned from the prospective of the two schools, it is one that has set off a series of shifts to the collegiate athletic landscape. This decision hurt Big East basketball, but it did a lot of damage to Big East football as well. While it may not be a powerhouse football conference, it is an important one.
The Big East is one of six conferences that get an automatic bid to a BCS bowl game. It was a weak conference to begin with, but Pitt has been one of the best football programs in the Big East in recent years, but now with these two schools leaving, another school, UConn is looking to be on the move as well, exploring a move to the ACC.
When Syracuse and Pitt left the Big East, the Big 12 pounced on TCU. TCU had verbally committed to leave the Mountain West Conference to join the Big East in 2012. However, they are now on their way to the Big 12. With TCU now out, the Big East is in danger of losing their automatic BCS bid.
Now, the Big East sits having lost two of their top schools, and a big name that they recruited to join on, so it was time to make some moves. There is a report surfacing that the Big East is sending out five invitations, three to Houston, SMU, and Central Florida as full-time Big East members. They will also be sending out invites to Air Force and Boise State, as football only members.
The Big East must now hustle and get the six invites on board ! I believe it would be a huge mistake for WVU or Louisville to join the Texas top-heavy Big 12. Mizzou clearly has had enough and wants out ! If the Big East succeeds in bringing in the 6, they actually will launch completely energized with a MUCH BETTER football product ! BE basketball is still a strong product and the 3 full members should get immediate recruiting advantages there !
really? im not going to say the big east is the best football conference or deserves to be in the same conversation as the sec. but show me some stats that shows that the acc is a better football conference. id really like to see that. big east has a better record in bowl games. the big east has wvu who has 2 bcs wins since 2006. the best team in the acc is va tech…who was stolen from the big east.
furthermore…pitt has been the best football team in the big east? since when? you clearly dont watch any big east football. that or you just make stuff up. pitt has 2 big east titles….2…none outright. they won a 4 way tie in 2004. uconn won the 3 way tie last year in terms of the bcs spot. wvu has 6, cincy has 2 outright. so nice try. why dont you sit down, do some research…took me 5 mins to check….nice reporting.
Hey buddy, your wrong about what you said in response to this kids article. Learn some proper punctuation and capitalization then go research it. Most likely, you spelt something wrong and looked up the stats from some other ignorant league. “So nice try, why don’t you sit down and do some research!” Took me a minute to blast you back!…. That is why you aren’t reporting!