The biggest sports news over the last week was Texas and Oklahoma informing the Big 12 that they're leaving and then formally asking for membership into the Southeastern Conference.
That news in itself is groundbreaking. Texas is one of the biggest brands in college athletics while Oklahoma has been a steady face at or near the top of college football ... and both are joining the premiere conference that has won 11 of the last 15 football national championships. It will create a 16-team league with some of the best programs in the country all in one spot.
The ripple effect is what could happen to college athletics. Is this the beginning of a seismic shift where college football ... or college sports ... looks completely different than what we've known. We can all project what that will look like, but the wheels are in motion now and everyone is in game mode so they won't get left out.
I'm an ACC guy, and the ACC is in a tough position. The good news is that the league has a Grant of Rights deal that goes to 2036. The bad news is that it is a bad financial TV deal that will put the league at the bottom in terms of revenue and will be a reason schools may eventually look to leave. Other good news is that Notre Dame is tied to the league until the deal is up in 2036 ... and the bad news is that it isn't attractive to give up their independent status in football to join a league that's on edge.
So the ACC needs to do something. Adding West Virginia does nothing. Going after the Big 12 leftovers isn't really attractive to do and won't net much, financially or in regards to stability. None of that would help woo Notre Dame in any way.
But raiding the Pac-12 could.
When the last two rounds of expansion hit, the ACC was an aggressor. They wanted Miami from the Big East, and ended up taking Virginia Tech and Boston College along with it. That created bad blood between the two leagues, which became even more strained when a decade ago the ACC took Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville and, yes, Notre Dame's non-football sports as well. In the middle of all that, the ACC took a hit as inaugural member Maryland bolted the ACC for the Big Ten. The ACC is the one of the four major conferences that got hit ... and also showed that they have the ability to be ruthless.
So go after the Pac-12.
The Big Ten doesn't want to because they have a close working relationship with the league. The Pac-12, while stable, doesn't have the kind of options to bulk up its league as the SEC, Big Ten or ACC. So appeal to the Pac-12 powers now before someone else does.
See if you can pull USC and UCLA ... and Stanford and California ... and Oregon. Yes, that may sound ridiculous but we've entered the realm of outside the box thinking. For the ACC, it is only a matter of time before the SEC or Big Ten starts cozying up to Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and Miami ... if they haven't already. For the Pac-12, it's only a matter of time before they're on the outside watching the SEC and Big Ten control everything.
The ACC has an attractive offer. The ACC, along with the SEC, is the only conference to have put a team in every College Football Playoff. The Pac-12 hasn't had a team in it since 2017 and hasn't won a game since Oregon won one in 2015. The ACC can say that they will form a 20-team league in pod form ... with four pods with five teams in each. Those five schools would live in a pod together and then venture out for national games against the other pods.
It gives the California schools and Oregon a pathway to recruit in the south and east coast ... and their games shown on TV all Saturday long all season long. It give the ACC the same thing, as the league would now be able to have content on all day ... including owning the late night audience. The ACC could imagine having a Oregon-Miami game at noon, a Clemson-North Carolina game at 3:30pm, Virginia Tech-Florida State at 7pm, and Stanford-USC at 10:30pm with other games sprinkled on other stations. That is attractive enough to open ESPN's pockets up a bit more.
Oh, and adding five Pac-12 teams would only get the ACC to 19. Who's the 20th?
Notre Dame.
Bringing in USC and Stanford would be a draw for Notre Dame, and would house seven ACC games that the Irish already play during the season (currently, Notre Dame plays five ACC schools and play USC and Stanford every year). So how much different would it be for Notre Dame to play one or two more conference games (the ACC right now has an 8-game schedule, though a 9-game slate would be more appropriate in a 20-team league)? The ACC already has an open working relationship with Notre Dame and could still allow the Irish to keep most of their independent perks while still having them as a full member of the conference.
Notre Dame can still have their TV package with NBC (which is for home games), while the ACC can still offer ESPN or another bidder the Irish's road games. So ESPN would know that every other year, they'd get a Notre Dame-USC game.
It is a wild concept, but it might work. Here is how my pod proposal would work
NORTH: Boston College, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
SOUTH: Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia, Virginia Tech
CENTRAL: Clemson, Duke, NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest
PAC: Cal, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC
That keeps the historically great programs (Notre Dame, Clemson, USC, and Miami/Florida State) in their own pod. Keep a 9-game regular season schedule where you play the other four teams in your pod once, allow for any "historic rivalries" to continue ... like Notre Dame's with USC and Stanford, North Carolina-Virginia, Clemson-Georgia Tech, Miami-Boston College, etc. and then fill in the schedule accordingly. The pod system is only for scheduling purposes, as the ACC wants to ditch the division format altogether ... so have the top two teams play for the conference title. With the upcoming expanded playoff, the ACC could look to get two or three (or more) teams into the playoff this way.
Again, this is a far-fetched idea ... but I can tell you right now that the powers that be in the ACC have thought about this. There will be growing pains and maybe concessions to be made, but if the ACC wants to have a seat at the New College Football League Presented By State Farm Alliance of MegaConferences, this is the road they need to look to go down. If not, the next decade will be the one where the ACC is looking like the current Big 12.
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