• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Conference Expansion: Stanford, California and SMU Join the ACC

I’m sure the remaining dregs of the BigXII reached out to the SEC. their only other play u is a to get the Texas and Oklahoma legislatures involved. Sounds like that won’t work in OK though, and probably not Texas either.

If this spreads to a few ACC teams, it’s all going to come tumbling down in a heartbeat. Toy can bet the NC and VA legislatures will try to protect NC State and VA Tech if the Heels and Cavs start weighing their ACC options.
 
West Virginia and Cincinnati would add nothing to the ACC or any other conference. The only reason a conference would add them is for headcount.
 
Conference Expansion: Texas & Oklahoma to the SEC?

The SEC wants to form a Super League. If the goal is to get to 20-24, they just need to poach a few more teams. Picking up Clemson, FSU, Ohio State, and Michigan would do the job.

https://twitter.com/JackMacCFB/status/1418678701135384579

Does that force ND to make a move? The SEC could include Oregon, Wisconsin, and Penn State go round it out from there. It could be a situation where every offseason, the SEC just poaches a team or two to expand the dynasty.
 
Last edited:
I think it’s ND and [inset personal preference] if the ACC is going to expand to 16.

WV would be fine - probably the best option available - they generally fit geographically and there are some historical rivalries. Not as excited about Cincy. Would love to pull Vandy from the SEC, but I don’t see that happening. Navy would be fine - I love the academies - but they’d have a hard time competing in most sports. UConn - no thanks.

But ND has to be involved. Makes no sense to expand otherwise.
 
It’s pretty hilarious that Vanderbilt has a vote on which other teams get to be in the super league. Just imagine them sitting there judging Ohio state, Michigan, and Florida states resumes. “Nope, sorry, just not good enough for the super league.”
 
The Super Athletic Conference (SAC)

It just means more
 
Wonder if ACC would go for TCU/Baylor. I think that pair and the Texas market adds more than anyone else outside of ND, which isn’t happening
 
No surprise here, ESPN is driving conference realignment...

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07...t-move-the-cfps-future-and-espns-master-plan/

Summary:

By moving TX and OU to the SEC, ESPN has now monopolized major college football by having TV rights to the SEC, ACC, BIG 10 and the CFP.

The PAC-12 may have screwed itself by not partnering with ESPN on its Tier 1 rights. They will be a distance fourth in the pecking order

85% of media revenue is driven by college football. None of the Big12 leftovers are worth adding (to the PAC-12 at least) unless there is some sort of football o ly agreement.
 
PhDeac said:
Louisville is #174 in US News. West Virginia is #241. To the extent those matter of course.

The Athletic article on new ACC commish Jim Phillips and his different approach to football. Lots of quotes from Clawson.

New ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is keeping the football lines of communication open and gaining support as he goes https://theathletic.com/2724874/202...nication-open-and-gaining-support-as-he-goes/

——-

“More than anything, as football coaches we felt we had very little voice,” Clawson told The Athletic. “We’d have these annual meetings and we’d have suggestions and, quite honestly, really nothing would happen. … And the one thing I really appreciate about Commissioner Phillips is he’s been very open, he’s been very engaging. We complained that we felt we didn’t have a voice, and he said, ‘Well, I want to give you access.’ I said, ‘We want meetings with you and ADs that we can express concerns. And if you say no, then fine, but then just tell us no. Don’t take these things and just put them off to some file that they never get looked at.’

“And it’s been good. There’s a lot of different things going on. Certain things are always going to be, you do what’s best for where you’re working. And then I think a lot of things are just things that we think are best for the ACC and college football.”

Clawson is in his third year as chair of the ACC head coaches’ committee, a position that usually has a one-year term but was extended after 2019 to stabilize matters during the pandemic in 2020, then extended another year with the commissioner transition.

…

“We want to become more than just Clemson-plus,” Clawson said of the league’s football power structure. “And what can we do to elevate the standard in the way that we are viewed right there with the SEC? And obviously, Clemson has held the banner for us, they’ve done an incredible job. But what do we do to help to elevate the brand, to make our football even better than it is? We come up with ideas and things that we feel are important, but it takes investment, and hopefully, that’s something that’s coming.”

As Swinney held a similar discussion with The Athletic later in the day, the Clemson coach spoke of his holistic approach to the committee, and to the league’s football identity. Clawson was walking by and came over to validate his conference colleague’s stance, saying: “He could just drive Clemson, and he doesn’t do that. He really does what’s best for college football. And that’s why all the coaches in our league really appreciate him.”

“And vice versa,” Swinney said. “That’s been great. We’ve been in the league awhile and we’ve never had an opportunity as coaches to have the access like we’ve had. We really have been able to communicate so much better.”
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it seems like all he praise leveled towards Phillips was in large part a subtle way to take shots at Swofford.
 
Swofford ran a basketball conference. Phillips runs a conference that needs to be a football conference.
 
DownEastDeac said:
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it seems like all he praise leveled towards Phillips was in large part a subtle way to take shots at Swofford.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think most now recognize Swofford was a terrible commissioner who was UNC/Basketball focused who didn't recognize the changing of the guard between football and TV rights and who is close to killing the league from his prior leadership.

The ACC's huge mistake came in the mid 2000s. This can be blamed both on poor timing of every football power sucking at the same time, the SEC's rise to become the football conference, and ESPN's complete control of college football and sports. I can't remember the exact year, but the original long term deal that the ACC signed with ESPN was right before the explosion of TV rights, but Swofford also took less money to ensure that regional tv stations like Jefferson Pilot maintained rights to at least a few regional broadcasts a year vs. giving ESPN have 100% control of the TV rights.
 
Conan said:
No surprise here, ESPN is driving conference realignment...

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07...t-move-the-cfps-future-and-espns-master-plan/

Summary:

By moving TX and OU to the SEC, ESPN has now monopolized major college football by having TV rights to the SEC, ACC, BIG 10 and the CFP.

The PAC-12 may have screwed itself by not partnering with ESPN on its Tier 1 rights. They will be a distance fourth in the pecking order

85% of media revenue is driven by college football. None of the Big12 leftovers are worth adding (to the PAC-12 at least) unless there is some sort of football o ly agreement.
Click to expand...

I'm a Clemson grad, and a bit of a pessimist at heart, but I'm much more worried about this deal than this board seems to be.

I actually think there are really only two long term options for college football:

1) Eventually about 40-ish teams form an NFL Jr. league, withdraw from the NCAA either solely for football or maybe for everything and sign a single TV deal and establish monetary rules for players similar to pro leagues.

2) Things stay basically similar to today with the SEC growing stronger with a new ESPN tv deal. The Big 12 falls apart and a few teams find new homes in the PAC, BIG, ACC, but the SEC financially and on field play coupled with ESPN's propaganda machine, along side the new NIL rules allows the SEC to slowly just monopolize the sport and kill all the other leagues.

This will lead to a slow death of the sport as the financial difference grows and nobody else can complete with the top SEC schools. Eventually fans of other teams will stop caring and watching and ratings overall for everyone will suffer. it will take 20-30 years, but if its solely this SEC/ESPN machine vs everyone else the entire sport will suffer and shrink.


In many ways this is the path college basketball has been on. The tournament became the only thing people cared about, regular season ratings suck now, and the tournament now begins to have it's ratings shrink because people don't watch the regular season, know nothing about any of the teams involved and don't invest time to watch.
 
Last edited:
I’m with you, dcnelso. My first response was “oh well, we’ll be fine” but I think there will be an SEC Super League NFL Jr and other schools will fall off. College football will fall off and people will blame NIL when it’s SEC and ESPN greed.
 
PhDeac said:
I’m with you, dcnelso. My first response was “oh well, we’ll be fine” but I think there will be an SEC Super League NFL Jr and other schools will fall off. College football will fall off and people will blame NIL when it’s SEC and ESPN greed.
Click to expand...

Let's just take Clemson as an example. We've been to 6 playoff/final fours in a row, 4 championship games, 2 national titles, but as the major SEC teams make $50-$100 million per year more money in TV, donations, merchandise money, there is just no way to continually keep just with that. Especially as we enter the NIL world. Clemson is in an ok spot for a few years with recruiting, but Clemson doesn't have the mega-donors who can offer NIL deals for recruiting incentives, which is where the major portion of money is going to go.

So as ESPN continues to prop up their investment in the SEC, more recruits will go to those schools because they have all of the money and media exposure. There just isn't an avenue for other schools to keep just with the monetary difference.
 
DownEastDeac said:
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it seems like all he praise leveled towards Phillips was in large part a subtle way to take shots at Swofford.
Click to expand...

dcnelso said:
Yeah I think most now recognize Swofford was a terrible commissioner who was UNC/Basketball focused who didn't recognize the changing of the guard between football and TV rights and who is close to killing the league from his prior leadership.

The ACC's huge mistake came in the mid 2000s. This can be blamed both on poor timing of every football power sucking at the same time, the SEC's rise to become the football conference, and ESPN's complete control of college football and sports. I can't remember the exact year, but the original long term deal that the ACC signed with ESPN was right before the explosion of TV rights, but Swofford also took less money to ensure that regional tv stations like Jefferson Pilot maintained rights to at least a few regional broadcasts a year vs. giving ESPN have 100% control of the TV rights.
Click to expand...

I know how you Clemson Tigers love John Swofford. I respect holding a 40 year grudge.

I heard someone say that Swofford's son was an employee of Raycom/JP Sports. I don't know if that statement is true. If it was, I would certainly have some questions.
 
The one big card I think the ACC has left is if they can form a mega conference with the PAC-12 and get out of the current ESPN deal. Then they could try to work a deal with NBC to bring ND into the conference which could help preserve their rivalries with USC and Stanford. NBC, USA, and NBCSN could air three or four games a week each. Peacock could air even more.

The backup plan would be to cut a deal with CBS to replace their SEC deal but expand it to include games on the CW, one or two of their other networks, and Paramount+.

The ACC needs to do something big and do it now. Staying with ESPN as the SEC’s little brother is not going to do it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top