In a move that surprised me personally, the NCAA has informally rejected the Atlantic Coast Conference’s request to waive the rule that requires a conference to have at least 12 teams before it can stage a football championship game. On Tuesday, Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips said “We got back word that the championship committee was overwhelmingly against waiving the current rule.”

I had personally thought that the NCAA would approve the ACC’s request in order to limit any further conference raiding of the type we all had to sit through this past summer (I would cite some of our previous discussions on this topic, but for some reason, our archives no longer work. Chas?). But no. So then Terry Don (Y’all can refer to me as Lee Charles) takes a few seconds of his life that he’ll never get back to point out the blatantly obvious next step.

“I think (adding a 12th team) would be where we need to go, if in fact we want the championship game.”

I think we can assume that the ACC does, indeed, want that lucrative football championship game. So brace yourself, fellow Pitt fans. Here we go again. So who is the ACC’s first target for their 12th team? Potential Big East member Louisville? UCF? South Carolina or some other SEC team? I don’t know for sure. But Terry Don does drop a hint.

“I think people continue to have affinity [for Boston College],” Phillips said. “I don’t know how they feel about us after what’s happened.”

@#%*@#% great. The chicken-fried, NASCAR-lovin’ bastards are looking at raiding the Big East yet again. Assuming that (1) Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese handles this situation as competently as he has handled everything else this year, and (2) Boston College thus leaves vapor trails bolting to the ACC, where does the Big East go from there?

My guess is, to pieces. At some point, the monster conference that mostly lies to our west (at least, all of the decent teams lie to our west, Lion Fan) is gonna get championship game envy too, and start hunting for a 12th team. Pitt, WVU, and Syracuse will all be considered, and as I’ve said many times before (where the hell are our archives?), I suspect that Syracuse will be selected (although Pitt will certainly make a strong bid).

But even if the Big Ten decides not to expand past its current 11 members (and there are many within the conference who don’t want it to), I doubt that a Big East Football Conference composed of Pitt, WVU, Syracuse, UConn, and Rutgers could invite in enough nearby Conference USA members in to maintain its BCS conference status. I suspect that we’d have to invite some far flung members in as well: perhaps Brigham Young, Colorado State, San Diego State, Northern Illinois, Toledo, or Marshall.

Although this might help us to maintain our BCS conference status, it would make us into the new Conference USA — a shapeless, sprawling mess that’s always under attack from other conferences who wish to expand.

So in conclusion, I don’t think that this is a good thing for alma mater, dear old Pittsburgh.

Hail to Good, Swift Ass-Kickings for Mike Tranghese (for not reforming the Big East Football Conference by now to make it more attractive to Boston College and everybody else), the ACC (seriously, why did you chaw-chewing idiots stop at 11 members this past summer?), those idiots in the Glass Bowl who damn near killed themselves ripping the goal posts down, and whoever is behind these vanilla flavored colas (THEY SUCK!!! OK!?)