ESPN has the major say ultimately in all that. ESPN is not going to allow the most valuable ACC members (UNC, FSU, Clemson, UVA, VT, Dook basketball, perhaps Miami football) to head to Fox. But ESPN would lose nothing if the most valuable ACC schools were to go SEC. ESPN gets the gain as long as those schools are ESPN.
USC and UCLA reportedly headed to Big 10.
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The ACC has waited too long at every turn to get its football to where it needed to be. Miami started begging the ACC to join from before the creation of BE football, and it took Swofford a few others more than a decade to get the basketball junkies to come around. Over that time, we lost a small fortune and a great deal of football power. Then we very stupidly added BC, when we needed WVU because WVU actually has football fans.
As you say, UNC sports cannot afford to spend another decade and a half falling farther and farther behind because of the lousy ACC deal.
Only if they are conference members. If they leave, they can join any league they want.
Good point about ESPN. They could be the one who fights the hardest. They would lose a lot of good programing.
ESPN can not void the ACC Grant of Rights. It runs through 2036 and is ironclad. Any school that leaves will forfeit all their home game revenue and all their media revenue from their new conference. It would literally bankrupt any ACC athletics department, which is why you won't be seeing any ACC schools leave until we are much much closer to 2036.
No contract is ironclad. There are a lot of schools that have managed to escape contracts. You're being very naive.
Notre Dame only owes this for non-football sports. It still is a hefty amount. It's a suicide for anyone in the league for football.
The screwed up part of it is that 16 teams isn't a conference, it's 2 conferences masquerading as one. Regardless, UNC best be making its move asap. Waiting 14 years is a death sentence to the revenue sports.
It is hard for me to imagine UNC not in the ACC! As an individual I hate the idea that money looks like it is going to dismantle our traditions and break up such a revered organization. I regretfully acknowledge that UNC may have no choice but to join either the Big or SEC to stay relevant. Maybe they will simply form a bball only conference or expand the playoffs so that the ACC can stay involved!
UNC was never relevant in football and never will be.
They've been totally relevant in basketball for over a half-century. That's not likely going to change anytime soon.
They've been totally relevant in basketball for over a half-century. That's not likely going to change anytime soon.
There is really no reason that UNC shouldn't be good in football. It just needs to be more committed to it.
The BT Commissioner stood on the stage with ACC Commissioner Phillips and the Pac Commissioner and swore that the BT would not raid either of the other 2 leagues in the this new 'Alliance'. And now the BT has raided the Pac.
The BT is original lying evil conference and it's still the worst. The SEC never promised the Big 12 that it would not take Big 12 teams.
They've definitely been relevant. Not for a sustained period of time, but they've had their moments. Unfortunately, that last moment was all the way back in the mid nineties.
What exactly can they do to "be more committed?" Other than keeping Butch, there isn't much they haven't done despite what some people say. The biggest problem is they can't find the right coach. That can be said for pretty much everyone.
I guess I see college football "relevance" differently. UNC is a basketball powerhouse. I think they won the ACC football title once, when Dick Crum was coach. I remember that. Bill Dooley's tenure had a few, but they were never in major bowl games. The mid 90s was just a time when UNC was really good... by UNC standards! lol... Gator Bowl appearances are their pinnacle.
They've barely been relevant in the ACC, let alone the NCAA. The last 25 years has been a fine example. They were mediocre most of the time and downright bad the others. That ONE fluke season with Marquise was the only exception and they lost the ACCCG and the following bowl game that year.
UNC is never in any kind of discussion regarding college football, as a whole.
UNC is a stepping stone for great coaches. It's not a destination. That's another testament to how they're not really relevant in college football!
I guess if you only consider a sustained excellence relevant, then that wouldn't include UNC. But if you do that for college football, that means that there have been maybe 8-10 teams that have ever been relevant. From a historical perspective, college football is pretty boring.
Say what? I maybe for assistant coaches but not HC. However, UNC has already found and have in place Coach Brown replacement when he's ready to retire. I believe he's the current Def Coach JC. It seem Coach Mack has done he same thing Coach Williams did when it came to his replacement. It's odd how UNC isn't really relevant in college football yet for awhile they have certain sent it's fair share of players to NFL so that has to count for something.
Mack Brown is a prime example of a good coach using UNC as a stepping stone!
I agree that UNC has sent a few really good NFL players to prominence. Chris Hanburger is actually in the NFL HOF! He graduated in... 1965, I think.
Pretty much, yes.
In 25 years, UNC has had one outstanding season, and that ended in losing the ACC CG and the bowl game. They sustain mediocrity in football.
Saying a team has never been relevant because they haven't been relevant for a long period of time is a pretty narrow view. You would be saying teams like Boise State and Harvard were never relevant.
Now based of an old interview with Coach Mack, he didn't want to leave UNC but of course certain administration folks and booster where so gunho over UNC only been a Bball school that they cared less if Coach Mack stayed. So, I can agree half of Coach Mack using UNC as stepping stone but again over those years, it's more been asst coaches leaving vice HC.
A few? Wait wasn't LT, Bly and Fuller in the HOF too? Hanburger was the first Heel I do believe.
Come on that sell UNC football program short because it'd definitely put a lot players in the NFL.
You're right bout Lawrence Taylor. He is UNC's most famous football player by far. I guess Choo Choo Justice is in 2nd place. He played in the 1940s! lol
Bet you haven't even read the contract the ACC schools signed, let alone give 1 example of a school managing to escape a Grant of Rights with similar verbiage.
But sure. Just wave your magic wand and utter the generic statement "but I've seen contracts get broken on the news."
Keep being naive. The ACC, as it is now, won't be around until the GofR ends.
It's weird to imagine UNC in another conference.
But, UCLA and USC in the Big 10 is just as weird!
"Everyone in the Navigator! We're headed to Lafayette, Indiana for 2 weeks to see the Purdue game!"
But, UCLA and USC in the Big 10 is just as weird!
"Everyone in the Navigator! We're headed to Lafayette, Indiana for 2 weeks to see the Purdue game!"
But having players in the HOF is not what makes a program extremely valuable. National Championships does. How many in football does UNC have? Huge attendance does. UNC football attendance would be next to last in the SEC, ahead of only Vanderbilt.
UNC has wasted its great potential to be as huge a factor as, say, a Texas by letting its football decline after Choo Coo (when we went to 3 consecutive Major Bowls, which then was an extreme rarity) and then stay mediocre. UNC has tossed away a giant fortune it could have amassed as well as major power, the pair of which could have made UNC Big enough to save the ACC all by itself.
How do you know that UNC basketball relevance will remain? The SEWC and BT now are determining which schools are in the only 'major' conferences. Yes, it is about football first and second and third, but it also will later basketball. Major basketball programs that are left out will not remain what they have been.
That’s why UNC needs to go to the Big 10. More money and still a great basketball league. Looks like the average BIG team will make 30+ million more than the average SEC team. So time to jump on that BIG. Plus I am sure they will not come alone. UVA will come too. So new rivalries with Penn st would be awesome. Plus getting back to playing maryland would be good
Villanova has 2 National Championships in the last 6 years while playing in a midmajor conference.
Gonzaga has been to the National Championship game twice in the last 5 years while playing in a midmajor conference.
The last two National Champions, Kansas and Baylor, play in a conference that is falling apart and had seen 6 schools exit this past decade.
That's how we know UNC basketball will remain relevant. Because we have paid attention to college basketball. You don't have to be in a major conference, let alone the SEC/B1G, to be a top basketball program. Expansion has been killing conferences for nearly 20 years now. It hasn't prevented basketball teams from being relevant. Heck the B1G still hasn't won a title since 2000.
Stop with the Chicken Little routine.
You don't become a rival just by joining an oversized conference. Boston College has been in the ACC for 17 years. Do you think we have a rivalry with Boston College?
And I can't imagine Penn State basketball being a rivalry anyone wants.
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