University of Pittsburgh’s big move to the ACC

Grant Conroy, Sports Editor

March 12, 2013

The University of Pittsburgh Panthers have been a solid contender in the Big East Conference since the conference was introduced in 1979. With championship titles in both major sports, football and basketball, it is safe to say that these Panthers have established a name for themselves in this highly competitive NCAA conference.

However, change is on the horizon, as many universities across the United States have recently been moving to new conferences. Just last year, the West Virginia Mountaineers, an arch rival of Pitt, decided to transfer their talent from the Big East to the Big 12 where they would play teams such as Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, etc.

The Big East has been notorious for their lack of talent on the football field as of late, as they are one of the weakest major football conferences in the NCAA. On the other hand, they are also notorious for having one of the toughest, most competitive major basketball teams in the country. With the likes of Syracuse, Georgetown, Louisville, Connecticut, Notre Dame, and others, the Big East always has a chance to appear in the NCAA championship game.

And with six teams in the top 25 in 2013, they are again in contention.

However, in the 2013-14 season, the Panthers will become a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The change will be something completely different for the city of Pittsburgh.

In the minds of many critics and basketball analyists, the move to the ACC will be a good one for the Panthers, especially in terms of basketball. Minus the likes of Duke, North Carolina, and Miami, the ACC is an otherwise weak conference in basketball. Whereas on the other hand, the Big East sends out competitive, ranked teams night in and night out.

And with the Panthers only losing two starters to graduation, PG Tray Woodall and PF Dante Taylor, they have a tremendous opportunity to take control of their new conference.

As for the gridiron, the ACC has proved to be one of the weakest conferences in college, usually sending a low-ranked team or even a non-ranked team to a BCS bowl. This is simply because the winner of a conference always recieves a BCS bid regardless of their talent or ranking. Perhaps the Panthers can finally reclaim their football prowess with this big move.

New teams, new faces, and new venues are in store for the Panthers, something that could end up being beneficial or disastrous. We will just have to wait and see how it plays out.

About the Contributor

Grant Conroy, Staff/Sports Writer

This is Grant Conroy, a junior at Bethel Park High School who is new to the Hawk Eye staff. This is his first year writing for the newspaper and he is already taking the online writing world by storm. He is an experienced writer due to his previous years spent in honors and advanced English classes. Grant enjoys writing primarily about sports topics and controversies, but he has a wide variety of areas in which he excels as well. While in college, he plans to utilize his 4.2 GPA to major in Journalism/Writing at the university of his choice. A few colleges that he is considering are Northwestern University, Boston University, and the University of Vermont. Outside of the classroom, Grant is a dedicated and hardworking member of the Wrestling team, Yearbook, PACS, and of course, the Hawk Eye. Additional hobbies of his include snowboarding at various mountain resorts, playing with his dog Rosie, and living life like there's no tomorrow. He plans to continue writing for the Hawk Eye during his senior year of High School.