Lawsuits, rumors of FSU and Clemson going to all of the other “power” conferences, wild speculations on YouTube and other social media. Is there anyone here that is local to the ACC schools that knows something real?
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The ACC will live bcuz the Big 10 and SEC can’t absorb all these schools.
They better get Notre Dame and UConn in the fold b4 the Big 12. And then schools like UMass, App State etc could move up if needed.
I could also see the big 10 breaking apart in a few years. The coast to coast travel is too much. Maybe a Rutgers and Maryland become available.
But I think the ACC is stable in its existence but maybe not its makeup.
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High likelihood that the ACC will undergo serious changes in the near future.
Big 10 is solid & likely to add 2 teams within the next two years. For recruiting & increased viewership, Big 10 wants a presence in Florida, the South, and in Texas. Of course, Notre Dame would be welcome without relocating its campus to any of these locations.
Notre Dame is in a precarious position despite proclamations to the contrary. Notre Dame’s primary concern is focused on increasing its chance to compete in the national championship playoff. This could lead them to the Big 10 or to another conference which would be solidified by Notre Dame’s membership. Does not appear to be the ACC, but we won’t know until we know.
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Even though the ACC GOR goes on for years, ESPN has an out in its contract with the ACC in 2026. Essentially, ESPN coudl walk away. Most likely is that they renegotiate an extension.
That said, whether the ACC implodes should not be your question, as it most certainly will evolve, as will the BiG and SEC. The Big Time Football Schools will take their ball and leave their conferences. Within the next 5/6 years, 40-50 teams will join the mega-payout Football Bowl League, or something similar. FSU & Clemson, sure, they’ll be on the short-list for an invite. But Carolina will be begging for one as well, and likely UVa.
No way 'Bama and Georgia continue to share their largesse with Vandy. Ditto tOSU and Michigan sharing with Rutgers or Indiana.
The new world is dog-eat-dog. Gotta position yourself for an invite to the Big Time. Haves and have-nots. The latter will be relegated. Heck, Cal & Stanford could return to the relegated Pacific Conference if they don’t get a seat at the big boy table.
The ACC will survive, but be a shell of its former self as it will be a league with regional relegated teams, which means a whole lot less money. Think Group 5 pay, maybe…
Meet the new boss, same as teh old boss.
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To me it just does not seem right to have Cal and Stanford in a league that includes “Atlantic” in its name.
I just checked Stanford’s football schedule for this year and it includes away games at Clemson, NC State, and Syracuse. I wonder how the travel is going to affect the sleep habits and academic efforts of the players. Stanford’s other away ACC conference game is at Cal, for which the travel is very reasonable (and of course The Big Game has to go on).
Football is not too bad, as they will fly charter. And it’s only ~4 road games in the eastern time zone, and they just play 1 game per week.
Travel for the other sports is gonna be rough. For basketball, both schools are used to flying together to road games, but Wed/Sun will mean zoom classes in season. Baseball & softball? Yikes.
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I wonder how badly this will hurt recruiting - but it’d be the same for the East coast teams to some extent who go all the way West…
This is what I’m thinking. It’ll be interesting to see new matchups over the next year or two, but then the west coast schools are going to get so sick of traveling cross country every other week to play other Big 10 or ACC schools.
I’m a USC alum and am very angry that only a small handful of people at USC, in secret, decided the school would kill the Pac-12 by switching conferences without allowing input from alumni, fans and students.
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They had no choice but to follow the money.
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Then they should have been open about it and explained their position BEFORE they decided, in secret, to leave the Pac-12 and join the Big 10. And you always have a choice.
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In addition to espn who coudl walk away from the TV rights in 2 years, Clemson believes that they have a way out.
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They didn’t have a choice…because others were already being poached.
The alums will always come back. It’s a temporary setback if the alums get mad.
The Pacific Time Zone was killing viewership & revenue for Pac-12 members.
Will be played at a mid-point neutral site at SMU in Dallas, Texas.
Many believe that UNC is on the Big Ten’s priority wish list. U Virginia also likely to be welcome.
Big Ten avoiding FSU as it does not want a lawsuit for tortious interference.
SEC has a problem with accepting Clemson and/or FSU as those states are already represented by U South Carolina & U Florida. Would lead to too much competition for in-state recruiting.
Big Ten’s potential target list may be UNC, U Miami, Georgia Tech (Atlanta is #6 TV market), and U Virginia. Has rejected FSU’s approaches & does not want Clemson.
Duke, WFU, Louisville, Boston College, NC State, Pitt, SMU, Syracuse, & Virginia Tech may have difficulty finding a league with a lucrative payout.
Of course, Notre Dame is the primary target of the Big Ten Conference.
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The Pac-12 and its previous incarnations did fine in the Pacific Time Zone when games were consistently set at 1 PM Pacific Time. Even 4 PM Pacific Time would have been OK. The main problems started when the horrible previous commissioner, Larry Scott, began scheduling games to start at 7 PM Pacific/10 PM Eastern, and often didn’t set game times until 2 or 3 weeks before the games were to be played. I suppose USC’s ban for 2 postseasons and loss of scholarships didn’t help, either, since it was the Pac-12’s marquis program.
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Better question is whether Major Sport (Football, Basketball) college athletics survive at all once everyone realizes that they have nothing to do with student athletes, and are nothing but College/University branded minor league sports?
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Who would get rid of college sports? The colleges in the power conferences want the tv / streaming $.
This has been a fact for a very long time. College athletics aren’t going anywhere and are an important part of the college experience for many students.
That said, NIL is going to continue to dramatically change college athletics and the NCAA.
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Totally agree, but when the schools, and the NCAA, were able to at least pretend that it was about the student athletes the - fans could still fool themselves into believing the party line. Now, those days are gone.
Add that to the consistent rumors coming out of private equity firms about their interest in “partnering with” - i.e. buying - top college athletic programs, the complete split of top program major sports from any “educational” connections will be complete.