ACC is finished…UNC better be right out the door with FSU…
Unless at least Clemson and probably also another school with some football clout (say, Miami or VT) is also clamoring to race right after FSU, I do not see it any time soon. They will have calculated that they can lose FSU and still be fine in every sense except huge TV dollars. UNC has such special, very old relationships with UVA and especially Dook, that I do not see UNC ever agreeing to lose either without total collapse first. Likewise, the entire state apparatus is going to all but demand that UNC and Moo remain paired. And desire to win something in football will be used to quell any calls by fans to leave the ACC: it will be noted, stressed, that if UNC cannot win the ACC it certainly has no hope to topple Ohio St and Michigan, much less the murderer's row of the SEC. So the only chance for UNC football to ever win a conference championship is to stay in the ACC - and then it can also get into the playoffs.
So I think ACC talks about FSU that include ESPN/Disney must focus upon the ACC desire to survive losing only FSU, and ESPN wanting to keep FSU in its orbit in the SEC must act then to facilitate the ACC becoming no doubt whatsoever the 3rd strongest and wealthiest conference. That would include things like agreeing to add pro-rata for ACC exapnsion and helping get any school out of an existing GOR. The more along such lines that Disney does, the lower the FSU buyouts can be.
We know that both Amazon Prime and Apple would love to air all kinds of live D1 college sports. Neither has any shot to air SEC or BT. But both could air ACC, if ESPN would sell our contract, or part of it. And both likely prefer more programming options than 16 schools could provide. So the ACC, now already a National conference, can with proper backing become a quite successful larger conference. Apple CEO Tim Cook did his graduate school at Dook and is extremely happy in being surrounded by all things Calford. Jeff Bezos was born in New Mexico and grew up primarily in TX - he owns a huge ranch in TX that had belonged to his grandfather. He went to HS in Miami. He is well known for having a strong liking for all three areas, and he has a history of wanting to prove he can master what others say cannot be done at all. Making the ACC a real threat even fiscally to BT and SEC would be such a challenge.
And many sound (though obviously not HR) options exist for ACC expansion. Thinking in terms of. being a super sized National conference, Arizona and Arizona St come to mind. Each school has tons of alums living in CA, as well as thousands of families of current students. Both schools would love to continue academic associations with Cal and Stanford. Both are AAU. Almost ideal for an ACC that has Cal and Stanford.
And then far more important for the acquisition of football talent is the Lone Star State. SMU alone cannot effect much for the ACC, but toss in TCU (also in DFW Metroplex) , Baylor (in the Waco TV market, which is just south of DFW), and Texas Tech (large state university with most of its slums living in the huge DFW Metroplex), and the ACC can have a massive presence in TX, which probably is the most football obsessed and productive state. Baylor is the oldest university in TX, and per capita its students and alums wields more power in state politics than even UT (which is massive). SMU has per capita the richest alums of any TX school. TCU seems like a poorer private school only because its is in direct comparison to and competition with SMU and Baylor.
If the ACC needs a second school in FL for presence and recruiting, then both USF and UCF are larger than FSU and better located for recruiting. USF is already an AAU school, which would delight ACC leaders. I think Miami has a history of academic cooperation with USF.
And then we have northerly ACC regional possibilities. WVU would fit with sports fervor, but its limitations are also obvious. Cincinnati, a huge state university, is Louisville's most played rival in both revenue sports and is located in a state super rich in talent for both sports.
