The exit of the Syracuse Orange and Pittsburgh Panthers, along with the potential West Virginia Mountaineers evacuation to the SEC, has left Big East football-playing schools like the Connecticut Huskies, Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Louisville Cardinals in deep trouble. Let's not talk about the TCU Horned Frogs, as their situation is just too depressing.
UConn To ACC? Former Big East Teams Grasping For Lifeboat
UConn, for one, has stepped up its talks with the ACC, according to Andy Katz and Joe Schad:
According to the source, [UConn president Susan] Herbst was having conversations recently [with the ACC] but in light of Pittsburgh’s and Syracuse’s defections from the Big East, the talks have accelerated in the last 48 hours.
One semi-popular theory: the ACC expanded to 14 teams instead of going straight for 16 teams in order to make it clear to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish that there's still a stable home waiting for them. The ACC, Big East and Big 12 have loomed as potential non-Big Ten destinations for the Irish, should they ever deign to join a conference, but two of those are on the verge of losing power status.
If Notre Dame doesn’t sign up, UConn and Rutgers seem like the most likely to be ACC teams No. 15 and 16, based on John Swofford’s current plan of entering northeast media markets that care about basketball.
For more, stop by UConn blog The UConn Blog. That’s the name of our UConn blog!
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