Daily Word: How do Syracuse, Pitt Impact America East?

Daily Word: How do Syracuse, Pitt Impact America East?

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New for the 2011-2012 seasons, the America East Daily Word, a collaboration between AmericaEast.com and AExtra, will recap the previous day's games and on goings on our nine campuses and provide links to recaps, previews, features and exclusive coverage.

The big news from the past couple of days in college athletics has been all the speculation and hoopla coming out of the major sports conferences in the aftermath of Syracuse and Pittsburgh joining the ACC. 

Today's Tweet of the Day deals with such issues as ESPN College Hoops (@ESPN_CollHoops) reports the Big East, now Orange- and Panther-less, has committed to stay strong with its current members.  The ACC, meanwhile, hasn’t necessarily stopped expanding just yet and sources told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz that UConn is still "actively pursuing membership" in the ACC. 

But what does all that mean for the America East Conference?  It's certainly difficult to say at this point because the major shifting among the power conferences could be far from over.  Who will the Big East recruit to replace Syracuse and Pitt?  What is the fate of the Big 12?  There are a lot of questions and not a whole lot of answers.

University of Hartford President Walt Harrison was quoted in a Hartford Courant column about the state of college athletics.  "I would call it greed," Harrison says.  "Yes, football considerations tend to rule, but, at its core it's about the intention for more money — not about anything else."

Once the major players start to confirm current membership or defect to other conferences for what may be greener pastures, we’ll know more here in Cambridge. 

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