The Big 10 answered the SEC additions of Oklahoma and Texas with UCLA and USC Thursday.
That’s the end of the Pac 12. They have no options to move East, and their conference network was a disaster, to begin with.
The likely scenario is that the Big 12 absorbs some of the remaining Pac 12 schools. Maybe more Pac 12 schools go to the Big 10.
If nothing happens and the Big 10 and SEC are the only two that are left, then somebody is first and somebody is last and the bigger fish always eats the little fish eventually. So don’t say it’s a Power 2… it would be a Power 1.
Won’t a 36 team SEC or Big 10 be too dumb for words?
To avoid that scenario other conferences have to survive, and for the ACC all options are on the table.
As we’ve said before the ACC and Commissioner Jim Philips has time, but not unlimited time. The Big 12 and Pac 12 were done in by TV contracts coming close in the next few years while the ACC’s is into the 2030s.
Philips has 5 years to come up with a plan. I’d say by the late 2020s ACC team will be weighing their options in earnest.
What options does that leave the ACC? Anything and everything is on the table, but doing nothing will mark certain doom for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
- Notre Dame is always out there, but you can’t have that be your only option.
- Merge with the Pac 12 and/or Big 12. Why not? Geography, Academic fit, tradition? Who cares. This is about survival, and with those conference opening their TV contracts soon why not expand to 18-20, even 24. There are still very strong brands remaining in those conferences. Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma State, Kansas basketball, West Virginia, the Arizona schools, etc.
- Stay pat – and hope for the best.
If the ACC in any way stays pat, the battle to survive is already lost.
If it were me, I’d make a customary call to Notre Dame, and if they are still a no go then work on building up the numbers of the conference and reopening the TV contract.
