There is a storm brewing in southern Florida, but Mother Nature didn’t cause this hurricane…. There is a storm brewing in southern Florida, but Mother Nature didn’t cause this hurricane.

This storm is driven by money, and it could rip the Big East apart.

The Atlantic Coast Conference wants to expand in order to add television markets and a conference championship game.

Long known as a basketball conference, the ACC wants to become a major football conference as well, and has set its sights on Miami, Boston College and Syracuse. Last Friday, the ACC extended invitations to all three schools, and it seems likely that all three schools will accept.

If that does happen, Pitt will need to find a new conference. A five-team conference consisting of Pitt, Rutgers, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Connecticut will not work, and there is no way that Pitt can survive as an independent school.

One scenario that seems to be popular is that Pitt should join the Big Ten.

While this would renew the Pitt-Penn State rivalry, it will not, and should not, happen.

Pitt would bring nothing to the Big Ten.

The conference already has, in Penn State, a strong drawing from the Pittsburgh television market. Adding Pitt would not add new viewers, and thus no new money, which equals no invitation to join the conference.

And as long as Notre Dame remains independent in football, the Big Ten will continue to hope that the Fighting Irish will decide to join the conference.

Just because Joe Pa thinks it’s a good idea to join the Big Ten doesn’t mean that the rest of the conference does, or even that it is a good idea.

Besides, why would Pitt want to join a conference that can’t even count the number of members it has? If ten equals 11, I have a lot of high school math to rethink.

So what should Pitt do?

Being independent is not an option because the football team does not have the needed fan base.

It works for Notre Dame because the Fighting Irish have one of the most prolific football programs in the nation, and their fans travel all over the country to see them.

Pitt has a hard enough time drawing fans to its home games. Never mind the fact that Notre Dame has its own television deal, which is something that Pitt, as it stands, could never pull off.

While staying in the Big East won’t work, staying with the teams that are in the Big East will work.

Why not do what the ACC is doing and raid another conference, like the Mid’#30;American Conference or Conference USA?

Let’s imagine a conference made up of the five leftover Big East teams and Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida and Memphis. There would be nine teams ? one more than the Big East currently has.

While it won’t make the conference’s football status better, it will improve the conference’s basketball status.

But that also means that the Big East, or whatever the conference would be called, would have to jettison the six members that don’t participate in football. That means saying good-bye to Georgetown, St. John’s, Villanova, Seton Hall, Providence and Notre Dame.

Still, a basketball conference with Pitt, Connecticut, Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis would be pretty good.

If that doesn’t work out, Pitt could always join the MAC or Conference USA. It can’t be that bad, right? Pitt plays the conference’s teams every year anyway, so, in a way, joining them would be keeping the status quo.

Since 1999, Pitt has scheduled 22 non-conference games, including those in the upcoming season. Of those 22 games, 12 of them have been against schools like Kent State, Bowling Green and Toledo.

All three of those teams are members of the MAC. Right now Pitt is just an unofficial member, and making the membership official by moving to the MAC wouldn’t be that bad.

Pitt hardly ever loses to those teams, so there’s the potential for an undefeated season, which would also mean that Pitt has a great shot at a meaningless bowl game every year. That hasn’t happened in a long time, now has it?

But no matter what conference Pitt does end up in, it shouldn’t be a conference where the number 10 actually means 11.

Joe Marchilena is the sports editor for The Pitt News and, although it took a while, he can now count to 11.