UPDATE: ACC strikes first?

UPDATE 2: The ACC confirmed everything we already knew, naming Pitt and SU the newest members of the conference. 
UPDATE: The ACC announced a teleconference for 9:30 a.m. Sunday. The president of Florida State confirmed Pitt and Syracuse applied to join the conference. The conference voted Saturday morning to admit both schools, a conference official told Kelly Whiteside of USA Today. 
     The terms of leaving the Big East include a 27-month lame duck waiting period and a $5 million exit fee. In theory, the schools could just breach their contracts, join the ACC, and go through with the subsequent lawsuit from the Big East.
     Meanwhile, out west, Texas and Oklahoma have Board of Regents meetings set for Monday.  



Just when all eyes were on the possible demise of the Big 12 Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference strikes in a move that will likely cripple the Big East. 


The two elder members of the Big East have been talking to the ACC about a potential move, Pete Thamel of the New York Times reported late Friday night.


Now, at first, the report seemed like yet another episode of the conference shuffle soap opera. 



But word broke today that both teams have not only been in talks with changing conferences, but have submitted application letters to the ACC, Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com reports. 

Last week in the podcast, Pete Gegick argued that the Big East had no leverage while renegotiating its TV contract. This move essentially proves it. The Big East already offered a weak football conference, but falling from nine teams to seven greatly limits their TV prospects - even with TCU, USF, and WVU still in the conference.


The worst part of all this talk is that Big East Commissioner John Marinatto had no idea any of this was going on. 

But this is not the first time Syracuse has been connected to the ACC. The school almost joined the ACC in 2003 when the conference raided the Big East by taking Boston College, Miami (FL), and Virginia Tech. Originally, the final spot was reserved for SU, but the Virginia legislature pushed to have the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech in the same conference. 


Neither Pitt nor Syracuse has commented on the potential move.