Here We Grow Again

1992: I remember sitting in the stands of a not-exactly-full 50,000 seat Lane Stadium in the early '90s, talking to my friends about how I wish Virginia Tech could get into the ACC somehow.  Like most people in Virginia, I grew up watching the local ACC schools on TV, like UVa and Maryland.  I didn't like being in the Big East at the time, what with one school (West Virginia) within reasonable travel distance, and a bunch of schools we had no culture or geography in common with.


Fast forward to 2010:  Virginia Tech wins the ACC football crown for the fourth time in seven years (while selling out its 66,000 stadium), and the basketball team defeats #1 Duke and makes it to the third round of the ACC tournament.  Perfect, right?  Across the country, the Big 12 nearly dissolved after losing Nebraska and Colorado, but Texas and its little brothers keep the league on life support.  The predictions of four 16-team superconferences seem premature.


2011:  Texas A&M wants out of the Big 12, which prompts some soul-searching among the remaining conference members.  Rumors begin to swirl about the Pac 12 and the Big 10 expanding again, while the ACC and Big East watch and wait.  But...the ACC makes its own moves by adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

I understand this makes some people mad, and it can make one do a double-take, considering that Syracuse was originally headed toward the ACC in 2003, until the Virginia legislature insisted on Virginia Tech's addition.  And, of course, what it all comes down to is money.  But a factor that may play an even bigger factor is a school's trust in the stability of its conference.  If Pitt and Syracuse were sure the Big East would be around in 10 years, they would have stayed.  If Texas and Oklahoma thought the Big 12 was going to survive, they probably wouldn't be meeting to discuss a move to a Pac-16.  The bottom line for me is, of all the conferences to make a move to ensure survivability, it shocks me (and many others) that the ACC made their move first.