Is the ACC on the Brink of Falling Apart?
Conference realignment is never-ending.
This time of year, realignment talk tends to be the main topic of conversation around college athletics, mainly because the only big sport still going on is baseball. This gives athletic directors, university presidents, board members, and league commissioners a little extra time on their hands.
Two years ago, it was the Big 12 Conference that made the headlines as Oklahoma and Texas made the surprising decision to bolt for the SEC. Not long after, the Big 12 responded by adding BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston.
Last summer, the landscape of college athletics really changed as UCLA and USC, longtime members of the PAC 12, announced they would be leaving the league for the Big Ten.
Now, it's the ACC's turn. However, this is a bit of a different situation that is unfolding as a cluster of schools are looking to stick together whether that be in the ACC, their own league, or elsewhere.
According to Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated, "A subset of seven schools in the 14-member conference has coalesced over what many of them describe as an untenable situation. Officials from the seven schools, led by Florida State and Clemson, have met a handful of times over the past several months, with their lawyers examining the grant-of-rights to determine just how unbreakable it is."
Monday afternoon Brett McMurphy of the Action Network confirmed Dellenger's report that Clemson, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech have tabbed themselves as “The Magnificent 7” ACC schools.
Why is this happening all of a sudden? Money, of course. The ACC could be nearly $30 million behind the SEC and Big Ten in annual distribution by the time 2026 arrives, per Dellenger's report.
"During a Board of Trustees meeting in February, FSU athletic director Michael Alford seemed to publicly fire a warning shot at the rest of the conference: Change the revenue distribution model or else."
So, how exactly does this impact the Big 12? Well, in theory, it could lead to Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark pursuing those seven schools, further expanding his dream of having a national footprint for the league. It would make life much easier on Central Florida, Cincinnati, and West Virginia, by adding more schools in the Eastern time zone.
The other possibility which is less likely is that those seven schools break off from the ACC, create their own league, and attempt to lure the three aforementioned schools, giving them at least ten members. This is purely speculation, though. There's no telling what schools the potentially newly formed conference would pursue, mainly because 1. it's not a for sure thing yet, and 2. if it does happen, they still need to hire a commissioner.
If anything, this could give WVU some comfort knowing that they are in a league with an aggressive commissioner, and after a decade-plus of being members of the Big 12, West Virginia might finally have some easier road trips.
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