The Big East's decision to add five new teams won't help the ACC add Pittsburgh and Syracuse any earlier, according to Big East conference commissioner John Marinatto. On Wednesday, the Big East announced that it would add Houston, SMU and Central Florida out of Conference USA in all sports to replace departing members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, while also adding Boise State and San Diego State out of the Mountain West for football only.
ESPN.com's Andy Katz wrote the story, and quoted Marinatto as saying:
"This will have no impact on the schools to fulfill the 27-month requirement in the bylaws," Marinatto said. "It's simply a matter of respecting the bylaws since they were part of writing the bylaws. There is an agreement amongst our schools that any early departure would do damage to the schools remaining and two of our schools indicated that they respected that process."
If that's the case, Pitt and Syracuse won't officially be joining the ACC until the fall of 2014. That means the Big East will have 13 schools playing football next season. Good luck to whoever has to schedule that one, and better luck to the teams traveling all over the country. As for Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC, it's probably better to wait it out than it is to get tangled up in a lawsuit like West Virginia has done in its attempt to bolt to the Big 12. Should something change, though, the ACC is ready to take both Pitt and Syracuse as soon as it can.