Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon has changed his tune on the question of leaving the Big East behind now that the Panthers have departed for the ACC. In 2009, Dixon expressed opposition to the idea of changing conferences. Now, though?
"We realized it was time," Dixon said. "If not us, it was going to be somebody else. I think we can all agree on that."
Speaking with reporters Monday at the UPMC football practice facility on the South Side, Dixon said he supported the move.
"I've always felt that if we were to move conferences," he said, "that the ACC would be the conference."
The breakup of the Big East will surely be a sadder one for the basketball team than it will be for football. Last year's Big East was truly a powerhouse basketball conference. But it's not as if the ACC will be chopped liver whenever the conference switch takes hold. In addition to Duke, North Carolina and Pitt, there's also Syracuse, and possibly also national-champion UConn.
Speaking of which, Dixon suggests that there will be other former Big East schools joining Pitt and Syracuse in the ACC.
"We're going to have a lot of Big East schools that are going to be with us in the ACC," he said. "In some ways, it's almost going to be a north former Big East ... when we get to that point."
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