BC Interruption, a Boston College Eagles community

Pittsburgh will join the Atlantic Coast Conference's Coastal Division in football, the league announced on Friday.

When the Panthers actually begin playing in the ACC remains unknown, but athletic director Steve Pederson isn't ready to shut the door on 2012.

[Maryland AD Kevin] Anderson said on Wednesday that he does not envision the process taking the full 27 months. He said the Big East has asked both Pittsburgh and Syracuse to stop coming to conference meetings and that the conference has signaled to their partners that "the transition could be sooner."

In the past eight years, five universities have bolted the Big East for the green of the ACC. The smart money says the University of Connecticut is next, even if nemisis Boston College quietly tried to squash such a notion.

New UConn President Susan Herbst is off to a solid start. She's doing the meet-and-greets. She's making key personnel changes. She's championing UConn as a burgeoning research, health care and bioscience magnet. And she insists that academics and recruiting compliance will be a major focus of her top-flight athletic programs. Herbst even gave a six-figure donation to her new school.

Here is where Herbst needs to be very careful. UConn's 15th president has to make sure her words match her actions (and the truth) when it comes to UConn's commitment to the Big East.

Connecticut still would rather be in the ACC than stay in the Big East if given the choice, a source said. But the Huskies' administration expect that the ACC is in no rush to expand beyond 14 after adding Pitt and Syracuse. The Huskies are prepared for this to drag on for quite some time.

Swofford has said he is comfortable at 14, but not philosophically against 16. The ACC would likely want to add Notre Dame and then Connecticut as a 16th school if it were to add two more schools. But Notre Dame continues to maintain its desire to be an independent in football and keep all its other sports in the Big East.