ESPN, 247Sports reports detail potential ACC expansion candidates

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips says the ACC is open to expansion, with SMU and West Virginia being among the more prominent candidates.

by TigerNet Staff - Fri Jul 28 12:41:34 GMT-04:00 2023

Conference realignment talk has never really left the news cycle, but the discussion ramped up this week with Colorado announcing its leaving the Pac-12 and returning to the Big 12.

The Big 12 had already responded to the departures of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC with the additions of BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston for this upcoming season.

Reports from two national outlets this week say the ACC has also identified some select programs for expansion in recent years.

Both ESPN and 247Sports named SMU and West Virginia, while ESPN went further to say the league was "running models" on the addition of Oregon and Washington as well in recent years. 247Sports says the ACC also looked into a partnership with SMU and Rice back in 2021.

"The ACC has been and remains highly engaged in looking at anything that makes us a better and stronger conference," ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said, according to ESPN. "We've spent considerable time on expansion to see if there is anything that fits. We have a tremendous group of institutions but if there was something that made us better, we would absolutely be open to it."

The problem for the league is that several flagship ACC programs have been reported as exploring their options elsewhere. 247Sports referred to Florida State as the "fulcrum" and cited a network report that Florida State was "actively looking to get out of the ACC" and August 15 being an important date for filing some notice to the ACC to leave in time after this upcoming season.

Other schools that were reported this spring to be looking intently at the ACC's Grant of Rights agreement, which is said to have schools locked in with a threat of a heavy monetary penalty through 2036, were Clemson, Miami, UNC, NC State, Virginia and Virginia Tech.

The ACC's members are seeing a growing disparity in TV revenue compared to the SEC and Big Ten, and the league office has repeatedly said it is exploring its options for more money to its schools, including a success initiative passed this offseason to reward programs more successful on the field.

During this week's ACC Football Kickoff, Phillips touted the league being third in TV revenue behind the SEC and Big Ten.

"Third is certainly a good position, but we want to gain and gain traction financially to close the gap with obviously the SEC and the Big Ten, who have leapfrogged everyone," Phillips said. "I think one of the presidents said it best, are we chasing a dollar amount, or are we chasing success? I think there's a difference there. If you are chasing a number, it takes you down a different path. If you are chasing success competitively in football and basketball and all of our sports, then I think every institution has an idea of what they need.

"So, again, I feel really strongly about this league, and I think people are missing it when they're not paying attention to the results of how well the conference has done. So it will continue to be a priority and certainly has the attention of everybody from our board on down."