"Pitt, Syracuse to join the Atlantic Coast Conference"

From The Business Journal


Review by Elliot Rosenfeld in KIN 435


The article “University of Pittsburg, Syracuse to Join The ACC,” by Owen Covington discusses the current changes going on in college sports. Syracuse and Pittsburgh have decided to leave the Big East after being members for 30 years in order to ensure some stability. This is the first real move this year towards super conferences and many believe it is going to start a serious domino effect to change all of college sports.

The main reasons for all these changes is money, but more specifically the ACC wanted to expand because it will allow them to renegotiate their TV contract with ESPN that they signed just a year ago. The current deal (12 years, and $1.86 billion dollars) was signed in July in 2010, but the addition of these two high profile teams should allow the ACC to increase that amount substantially. ACC officials are hoping that the new deal will be closer to the deal the PAC-12 just signed (12 years, $3 billion). Each ACC School is currently receiving 11 million dollars but that amount should also rise if a new network deal is agreed upon.

Pittsburg represents the 24th biggest TV market, and Syracuse makes up the 82nd biggest TV market in America. Along with this, Syracuse also has major footholds in New York City, which greatly attracted the ACC. There is some uncertainty when these teams will actually join the ACC however. The Big East requires each team to pay a $5 million dollar exit fee and wait a 27-month period, but the ACC is hopeful that the wait period will be reduced.

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Review by Erika Pearson in KIN 435

In the article, the Atlantic Coast Conference has announced that it has accepted Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburg into the its conference. The departure of Syracuse and Pittsburg from the Big East may cause realignment in the rest of the conference and negatively affect the Big East. According to the Big East bylaws, Big East requires team that leaves to give a 27 month notification and pay a hefty $5 million exit fee. According to the article, the ACC may have more schools interested in joining their conference; another Big East school that is considering moving to the ACC is Connecticut. Even though the big move may put the Big East in danger, the ACC has the opportunity to gain much anticipation for the basketball season as well as gain Madison Square Garden as a site for a basketball tournament.

I believe that the transition of Syracuse and Pittsburg to the ACC will be great opportunity for the conference. The ACC has the chance to expand their networks to New York and Pennsylvania as well as create a great buzz around the conference during the basketball season; the move will also bring money to the conference. However I feel that the future of the Big East is looking very bleak; the lost of two solid teams and possibly Connecticut could cause the conference to lose a lot of money as well as shrink their market and their buzz during basketball season.