Paul Finebaum suggests Clemson, North Carolina package deal could be enticing for SEC
Thursday, USC and UCLA turned the college sports landscape on its head with their departures from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten. That led to questions about what could be next, especially for the ACC.
SEC Network host Paul Finebaum made a bold suggestion on First Take on Friday — and it involves Clemson and North Carolina.
Finebaum suggested the two ACC powers could become a package deal and become enticing if the SEC wants to further expand, especially since Mike Krzyzewski is no longer at Duke. The league virtually kicked off the conference realignment rollercoaster last year when Oklahoma and Texas announced they were joining from the Big 12 in the near future. Considering the Big Ten is getting to 16 teams by 2024, the SEC could try and find a way to keep up.
“Think about this for a second,” Finebaum said. “[The] biggest rivalry in college basketball history, Duke and North Carolina. It’s possible that if Notre Dame doesn’t end up in the SEC — and certainly, they’re not a favorite to — Clemson says, ‘You know what? We’re tired of holding the ACC on our back. We’re heading to the SEC and we need a partner.’ And their partner may be the University of North Carolina. Could you imagine North Carolina telling Duke, ‘See you later guys. Now that Coach K is gone, we’re heading to the SEC.’ It makes sense. They’re a very attractive product. Then, you have Miami and Florida State going, ‘What about me?’
“They all can join because the SEC is struggling right now to figure out how to get Oklahoma and Texas in, they can probably take two more. Maybe two more after that. But these 26, 30-team leagues, we saw how that hasn’t worked in the ACC going from Miami to Boston College and Syracuse. So you have to be smart. But I think it’s going to happen very quickly, especially with the Pac-12 teams — a couple like Oregon and Washington — going we’re out of here, too. Then, you have those other three conferences, the ACC, the Big 12 and the Pac-12, looking for literally table scraps.”
Paul Finebaum on Big Ten acquisition of USC, UCLA: ‘This is about money’
Earlier in the day on Get Up, Finebaum also explained why the Big Ten made the sudden move to add USC and UCLA, saying it all comes back to money.
“What we have is just a battle of the two behemoths and that’s the SEC and the Big Ten. This is similar to what’s going on Wall Street between the biggest companies vying for your dollar. That’s what this is about. This is about money. Pure and simple,” Finebaum said. “Don’t let any college commissioner or president tell you otherwise. They’re a greedy bunch. That’s what they care about and the students who happen to play athletics are the pawn in this big prize.”