Conference Realignment: Will Syracuse and Pitt Football Make ACC Relevant Again?

Last week the ACC gained two new members when Pittsburgh and Syracuse were approved to join the conference after jumping ship from the Big East.

The additions bump the ACC from a 12-team league to a 14-team league, seemingly allowing them to separate the conference into two divisions. If the move was done for football reasons, there won't be much improvement.

The Big East has a couple valuable football commodities in West Virginia and prospective member TCU, but not Pitt and Syracuse. 

In the past nine years, Pitt and Syracuse won the Big East conference just once in football when Pitt won in 2004 and lost to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl, 35-7.

Adding Pitt and Syracuse will do nothing to help the ACC gain relevance in football again.

What the ACC needs is the original teams they took from the Big East—Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech—to become powers in order to enter football relevance.

Since joining the ACC in 2004, the Hurricanes have reached a grand total of ZERO BCS Bowl Games.

In the four seasons before joining the ACC, they went to four consecutive BCS Bowl Games, including two National Championships.

Virginia Tech has carried the ACC in football, playing in four BCS Bowl Games since joining the conference, so there can't be many complaints about them, but Boston College has fallen off the face of the earth in the football world.

Since joining the ACC, the Eagles have got progressively worse, with just a 7-6 record in their most recent season.

The ACC currently has four teams in AP Top 25, with three teams, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, undefeated.

But in order to gain relevance in the football world, the ACC needs "the U" to become "the U" again and a couple more teams to settle at the top of the conference with Virginia Tech.

Although the move by both schools does not make the conference more relevant in football, it does make Pitt and Syracuse more relevant in football as they leave the dismal Big East known for its basketball prowess and not its play on the gridiron. 

But the addition of Pitt and Syracuse does, in fact, make the ACC a better basketball conference.

Duke and North Carolina will now have some competition for the ACC crown in basketball as Pitt and Syracuse are two of the elite teams in college basketball.

Syracuse will become the conference's third-leading team in final four appearances with four, behind North Carolina's 18 and Duke's 15, and Pitt brings one final four appearance with them as well as recent success that has made them a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament twice in the past three years.

The move of both schools will definitely impact ACC basketball a lot more than ACC football, which is probably not what the conference was looking for when it approved Pitt and Syracuse for membership.