ACC Loading Up on NCAA Champions

With the addition of Syracuse to the ACC, the league now features six of the past 11 NCAA men’s basketball championship winners.

If UConn were to join the ACC, that number would rise to eight.

Since 2001, UConn (2004, ’11), Duke (’01, ’10) and North Carolina (’05 and ’09) have each won two titles, while Maryland (2002) and Syracuse (2003) have captured one apiece.

The only other titles during that span belong to Florida of the SEC, which won back-to-back titles in 2006-7, and Kansas of the Big 12 (2008).

“This is an exciting time, an unbelievably turbulent time, but it’s exciting for us, and the people in the conference office felt Syracuse and Pitt make a great fit,’’ Carolina coach Roy Williams told ESPN.com. “These are two great schools in our league. In basketball — my goodness — we add a great deal.’’

ACC Approves Pitt, Syracuse; UConn, Rutgers Next?

In a move first reported by Kelly Whiteside of USA Today, the ACC Council of Presidents has unanimously voted to accept Pittsburgh and Syracuse as new members.

“The ACC is a strong united conference that is only going to get better with the addition of the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University,” said Duke University President Richard Broadhead, chair of the ACC Council of Presidents. “Both schools are committed to competing at the highest level of academics and athletics. We welcome them as full partners in the ACC.”

“The ACC has enjoyed a rich tradition by balancing academics and athletics and the addition of Pitt and Syracuse further strengthens the ACC culture in this regard,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “Pittsburgh and Syracuse also serve to enhance the ACC’s reach into the states of New York and Pennsylvania and geographically bridges our footprint between Maryland and Massachusetts. With the addition of Pitt and Syracuse, the ACC will cover virtually the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States.”

Big East to Lose Pittsburgh, Syracuse to ACC

A day after Big East founder Dave Gavitt passed away at 73, the league he forged is about to lose two of its most established basketball powers.

Gavitt, who founded the Big East as a seven-team league and served as its first commissioner from 1979-90, passed away Friday night in a hospital near his hometown of Rumford, R.I. after a long illness, his family told The Associated Press.

On Saturday, Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com, citing high-ranking officials from both leagues, reported that Big East basketball powers Syracuse and Pittsburgh are “likely gone” to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Both schools have applied for membership to the ACC, and could be accepted by the ACC Presidents as soon as Sunday, Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com tweeted.

Florida State President Eric Barron told The Associated Press on Saturday before the Seminoles played No. 1 Oklahoma that the ACC was excited about adding to its “northern tier.”