Big East commissioner John Marinatto mentioned recently that he was open to the idea of Pitt and Syracuse leaving to head to the ACC next season instead of the mandated 2014 date. Pitt is clearly interested in doing that as well and athletic director Steve Pederson expressed his interest in a recent interview.
↵The main reason Pederson feels Pitt could be released early is because of the league's new stability with the recent addition of several new members:
↵↵↵"The Big East has been able to re-form itself now with more teams than when we announced we were going to leave. So they'll have 12 football teams, and they'll be ready to go by 2013, so it does seem to make sense on both ends that we'll be able to get there, and we're anxious to hopefully get that resolved and get everybody moving forward so we can all focus on where we're going to be in 2013," Pederson said. "In (Marinatto's) press conference with Temple (last week), he was ready to have those discussions, so I think we'll be able to get things resolved here."
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It's still no guarantee, but the chances of Pitt leaving for the ACC after this season are looking better than ever.
↵For more on Pitt athletics, check out SB Nation's blog, Cardiac Hill.
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