By Rock Westfall
Momentum is building in the ACC to fire “lesser” programs to give raises to its marquee brands. Reformation is perhaps the only way for ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to keep Florida State, Clemson, Miami, and North Carolina in his league. Thus, castoff programs may form a quiet but frequently discussed proposed league focused on service academies and strong academic schools.
Big Dogs Seek to Consume the Small Pups
In his regular Friday appearance on the Bill King Show, Pete Cordelli revealed his sources are telling him that the ACC is seriously considering the firing of low-revenue programs that are a financial drag on the league in order to free up much-needed cash currently going to those programs. Instead, that newfound revenue would be diverted to ACC power brands such as Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, and Miami.
Clemson and Florida State are aggressively looking for legal loopholes to get out of the ACC because of a terrible TV deal that runs through 2036, contingent on ESPN continuing the contract at its option in 2027.
ACC football programs are estimated to receive $20 to $30 million less in TV revenue than the SEC and Big Ten in the 2024 season. Thus, the ACC football powers argue they are falling behind the mega brands of the Big Ten and SEC to the point of not being able to compete for national championships.
The current conventional thought on realignment is that Florida State and Clemson would move either to the SEC or Big Ten. But an older alternative plan long discussed is regaining steam.
Instead of losing Florida State and Clemson, the ACC would potentially fire programs such as Duke, Wake Forest, Boston College, and Syracuse, which are either not serious football schools or simply not able to generate enough revenue to compete legitimately with power brands.
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Next, after whacking its low-revenue schools, the ACC would renegotiate a new TV contract that would enable it to give Clemson, Florida State, and other big brands a massive raise, keeping them in the ACC and saving the league.
This plan immediately raises the question of where the discarded programs would go. According to Cordelli, another intriguing idea has also been frequently, though quietly, discussed among insiders for several years.
An Academic-Academy League Could Reach into Other Conferences
Cal and Stanford are two academic powerhouses that, along with SMU, a respectable private school, are joining the ACC this year for football. Assuming that these three teams would be among the carnage of ACC downsizing, they could instead be part of a new Power Four-level league comprised of service academies and other elite academic schools. Army, Navy, and perhaps even Air Force would join this new conference with Duke and Wake Forest. Boston College and Syracuse could theoretically get invites as well as academically respectable private institutions.
Beyond those programs, things could really get interesting and perhaps nasty. Could Vanderbilt (SEC) and Northwestern (Big Ten) be politely told to get lost and join this new league? Not only is it being discussed now, but it has been discussed on the down-low in the past. And the brutal truth is that is where such schools belong instead of power football conferences.
As Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard warned, the Big Ten and SEC will eventually start a vicious cannibalization process. Pollard said he would not want to be a lower-tier program in the SEC or B1G because the power brands will eventually consume them. In this case, the ACC may prove to be a trendsetter that is ahead of the curve.
King Football is All That Matters
Certainly, there will be plenty of folks lamenting the potential loss of the North Carolina vs. Duke basketball series, perhaps the greatest rivalry in college hoops.
But once again, we are reminded that basketball, women’s sports, and Olympic sports don’t matter in the grand scheme of realignment. King Football is all that matters. And it remains the engine that drives almost all other sports on every major conference campus in the country.
Still, millions of fans are understandably not embracing all of these changes that are eating at the fabric of the game.
Former Oklahoma Sooner star and current Fox Sports college football commentator Spencer Tillman has long said that “tradition is the currency of college football.”
Once upon a time, that was true and a major reason for college football’s passionate popularity and meteoric growth.
Sadly, these days, tradition is becoming counterfeit paper in a cryptocurrency world.
