Multiple teams will leave ACC in future, Paul Finebaum warns

We could see another major round of college football realignment in future years, especially out of the ACC, according to commentator Paul Finebaum.

We could see more ACC football teams leave the conference in future years, Paul Finebaum believes. / USA Today Sports | Imagn

Clemson and Florida State will remain in the ACC for the foreseeable future after the schools settled their lawsuit with the conference, but the terms of that agreement still give members a cheaper way out of the league in the years to come.

And that’s when the ACC could see something of an exodus, according to Paul Finebaum.

“If you’re the commissioner of the ACC, you have to live in the moment. You plan for the future. But you can’t be too hung up on five, six, seven years from now because there’s a chance you won’t be the commissioner,” Finebaum said on WJOX Radio.

“He made the best deal for the moment. He had to stop the hammer. He had to stop the bleeding. He did that, but there is a due date. When that due date comes, it is going to be open season, I believe, on the ACC.”

He added: “By the time we turn the calendar toward 2030, all that will be different. I think it’s very likely that the ACC loses a couple of schools.”

That particular date is important, because the ACC’s purported exit fee to leave the conference in the year 2030 is scheduled to dip down to just $75 million.

That would be a notable decrease from the purported $120 million price tag that awaits any ACC members thinking of making a run for it right now.

And that’s a price that industry insiders believe any departing schools would be much more willing to pay, provided they can get in on a good deal with another conference.

More ... SEC would prefer North Carolina, Virginia over Clemson, Florida State: Finebaum

“That buyout price is no big deal when you think about what it was,” Finebaum said.

“It’s pretty in line with what Oklahoma and Texas paid a couple of years ago [to get out of the Big 12 and join the SEC]. So I think every conference, including the SEC and Big Ten, are carefully looking down toward what happened in the ACC and trying to figure out” what the future holds.

He added: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that the ACC put off the inevitable, and the inevitable is losing a couple of schools in the future.”

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