clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

ACC Expansion: Connecticut Making Push To Join Conference

Now that Pittsburgh and Syracuse have jumped the Big East ship to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, it looks like at least one school wants to ride their coattails.

ESPN's Andy Katz and Joe Schad have the scoop.

UConn president Susan Herbst is aggressively pursuing membership in the ACC to become the 15th or 16th member institution in the conference, according to a source with direct knowledge of UConn's situation.

According to the source, Herbst was having conversations recently but in light of Pittsburgh's and Syracuse's defections from the Big East, the talks have accelerated in the last 48 hours.

This really shouldn't come as much of a surprise, since the seven remaining Big East football schools are now scrambling to find stable homes without two staples like the Panthers and Orange in the mix, and in terms of profile, Connecticut is probably the school that fits in best with both the two schools that have already defected.

The Huskies have a strong reputation in basketball and its football program has made great strides in recent years, earning the Big East's automatic BCS bid a year ago when they went to the Fiesta Bowl against Okalahoma. For this reason, administrators likely think they can make the same argument to the ACC that Pitt and Syracuse did to secure their future as NCAA conference realignment continues.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.