Everyone is happy with the new ACC Atlantic and Coastal Divisions, yes? Well sounds like you have our school ... and Virginia Tech to thank for this? Via The Daily Press' David Teel:
"Swofford said the "overriding factors" in the division assignments were keeping Virginia Tech and Boston College as partners, and rekindling the Boston College-Syracuse and Virginia Tech-Pitt rivalries that waned when the Hokies and Eagles left the Big East for the ACC."
Wait, huh? Pitt-Virginia Tech? A rivalry 11 games in the making? There has to be more to it than that ...
Officials from Syracuse and Pitt "were full participants (in the discussions)," Swofford said, "short of having a formal vote. They were fully agreeable and supportive of the end points."
Got it. So neither Pitt nor Syracuse had a formal vote in last Friday's divisional alignment. Which is why preserving a 67-game football series between Pitt and Syracuse wasn't officially an "overriding factor" in the decision. Hey, it all worked out in the end and nothing to complain about here. The conference preserved yearly games between BC-Syracuse and Syracuse-Pitt. Virginia Tech also gets their fake rivalry with Pittsburgh back. Cool.
However, it does shed some light on just how screwed both Pitt and Syracuse are as they wait to extricate themselves from the Big East and join the ACC. No vote in the ACC ... no vote in the Big East. If BC and Virginia Tech wanted, the ACC could have just as easily Oklahoma-Nebraska'd Syracuse-Pitt with the divisional alignment, placing Cuse in the Coastal, Pitt in the Atlantic and pairing BC-Cuse and Tech-Pitt as the permanent intra-divisional rivals.
Luckily, it didn't come to that.
I also hope the Pitt and Syracuse football programs enjoy their trips to Boise in late November over the next 1-2 seasons.