Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC? What This Means for College Sports

Aaron Beard of the Associated Press has reported that both Syracuse and Pittsburgh have applied to become the latest members of the ACC.

In what would be an extreme conference shake up, the ACC would be receiving two basketball powerhouses, along with decent football programs begging for more relevance.

This would not be the first time that the ACC has swiped respected Big East schools from their conference.

In 2005, the ACC acquired Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College in a deal that damaged the Big East football brand severely.  

If Syracuse does indeed jump ship, rivalries would likely die, namely their relationships with UConn and Georgetown. This is something that has fans across the nation in a frenzy as major programs like Nebraska and Texas A&M are uprooting and heading for new conferences, killing rivalries in the process. Still, I think we're all hopeful that if these moves do indeed go down, that the rival schools agree on yearly matches, whether it's football or basketball.

Having said that, this move would clearly put the ACC back on top of the basketball world.

Adding a budding and incredibly solid program in Pitt, matched with the legendary Syracuse Orange and Jim Boeheim, this conference will become the ultimate basketball juggernaut. Throw those newcomers in the fire against the old-timers Duke and UNC and you have 3 perennial top 10 teams and a team that is slowly getting up there with Jamie Dixon and Pitt. This conference would no longer play second fiddle to the Big East, in fact, it would be the other way around.

The Big East would lose what's left of their weak football prowess as it would shave the league down to six teams. The ACC would again improve their already stellar football tradition. They get a program filled with great tradition in Syracuse. Even though they've been down in the dumps lately, quarterback Ryan Nassib seems to be leading the resurgence that Delone Carter started a year ago. Pair that with Pitt who has been an on-and-off contender over the last few football seasons and the ACC again gains legitimate depth within their conference. Matching Pitt up with Florida State, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech certainly creates intriguing matchups.

Even though the ACC would thrive like never before, the Big East would likely plummet without founding member Syracuse and long time member Pittsburgh. Essentially, the ACC is gaining more national prominence at the expense of another conference. Whether this is the best thing for college sports, I couldn't tell you, but ask UConn and Georgetown as they think back to the classics like a 6 overtime thriller (Cuse vs UConn) in the Big East tournament. If Pittsburgh and Syracuse do transfer, those days are long gone.