On the Banks, a Rutgers Scarlet Knights community

!!!!!RT @mhver3: rumblings that Uconn may join ACC in Olympic only and have a similar football scheduling deal that ND has. Indy in FB— Ben Swain (@thedevilwolf) September 25, 2012

It’s much easier to stay in than get knocked out and try to get back in," Luck said. "That was always the fear. I’m not trying to say the Big East is on the outside looking in, but clearly, with the loss of so many good teams in the last 10 years between VT, Miami, BC, Pitt, TCU, there’s a lot of top 20 football teams that had left and are playing in other conferences."

Clemson and Georgia have started talks that could result in the cancellation of the football series planned between the two schools for 2013 and 2014.

UGA athletics director Greg McGarity confirmed the talks Tuesday, though there has been "no resolution or final determination yet," according to UGA.

Talks were initiated by Clemson as a result of the ACC’s move earlier this year to expand to a nine-game conference schedule to accommodate 14 members in the league.

But the bigger issue hasn’t changed much for the Pirates, who have more fans and generally more football success than any of their peers but can’t make an upgrade in conference status.

The ACC and Big East don’t think ECU has enough of a television market base to justify getting a bid.

If traditional athletic logic carried any weight, the Pirates long ago would have been in the ACC or the Big East.

But since conference leaders in the ACC and Big East care more about annexing television markets than programs and fan bases with true regional athletic substance, the Pirates can’t catch a break.

The number one topic facing Pitt athletics right now is this - when do the Panthers get to begin competing in the ACC? I am now becoming more and more convinced in the conversations I've had in the past two days that Pitt will be in the ACC in 2012 and here is why - the school has had enough with the way the Big East has mangled this all and frankly is waiting on West Virginia.

If - or more accurately - when, West Virginia finally declares they are leaving for the 2012 season officially and the Big 12 schedule is announced with WVU on it, Pitt is going to follow them out the door and dare the Big East to stop them.

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.

The inept leadership of the Big East caused the conference re-alignment we are now experiencing. I'm not only talking about the Big East losing teams. I'm talking ALL the conference re-alignment nonsense. If the Big East had allowed the football school to control their own destiny outside of the votes of our catholic brothers, the college football landscape would be much different. The shuffling of teams may have happened anyway, but the current state of re-alignment is directly attributable to the lack of leadership with the Big East offices in Providence.

[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.

"We didn’t want them in,’’ he said. "It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team.’’

- Credit where credit is due to GDF, who admits to blocking UConn in the latest round of ACC expansion.