Mandel: The Pac-12 finally has options, including standing pat. But will a motivated ACC take a long look out West?
https://theathletic.com/2734693/202...resents-a-new-hurdle-in-conference-arms-race/
The ACC, far more than the Big Ten or Pac-12, is suddenly facing urgency to do something drastic. Former commissioner John Swofford locked the conference into a potentially disastrous long-term deal with ESPN through 2036. Not only will it soon be lapped by the other conferences financially, but ESPN is clearly putting all its eggs in the even-more-loaded SEC. ESPN takes over the current SEC on CBS package in 2024. Besides Clemson, most ACC programs will soon find themselves perpetually buried on ESPN2 due to the logjam of Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas and so on.
Most likely the only way new ACC commissioner Jim Phillips can renegotiate that ESPN deal early is to add new members. And no, Notre Dame will not be ditching independence soon.
Multiple Pac-12 sources wondered aloud whether the ACC will consider becoming the Atlantic and Pacific Coast Conference, teaming up with the Pac-12’s top brands (USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington) to become essentially a third superconference alongside the SEC and Big Ten.
Realistically, neither the ACC or Pac-12 can catch up to those two on their own.
It’s much the same concept Andy Staples proposed as a Big Ten-West Coast marriage, but the Big Ten, currently the sport’s most lucrative conference, is not facing the same pressure to act as the ACC, and Phillips is seen as more nimble and forward-thinking than counterpart Kevin Warren.
“It would be terrible for college football,” said one Pac-12 source. “But you can’t afford to do nothing.”