ACC schools exploring departure from the conference

Is the Atlantic Coast Conference over as we know it? Seven schools — Clemson, FSU, Miami (FL), UNC, NC State, Virginia and Virginia Tech — have met with lawyers in recent months to determine if a departure from the conference is legally possible.

The ACC’s current media rights deal with its member schools runs through 2036, but will it implode before then? According to college football insider Brett McMurphy, it’s on the table, also adding that conference athletic directors met for four hours with commissioner Jim Phillips on Monday.

ACC athletic directors emerged from 4-hour meeting w/commish Jim Phillips just now in Amelia Island & said they’re not allowed to talk to media today 👀 https://t.co/omBOwgaTKk
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 15, 2023

Those aforementioned programs are considered “The Magnificent 7,” nearly half of the 15 total schools within the conference. Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Wake Forest make up the others.

It’s not as simple, though, as backing out of the ACC and joining new conferences. Member exit fees currently sit at $120 million and the grant of rights has never been challenged thus far — “presumed to be airtight by most,” according to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic.

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Seven schools want out, but “it it were simple, everybody would have done it already,” an ACC source told Auerbach.

The Big Ten would be interested in the likes of FSU, Clemson, Virginia, UNC and Miami, with a league source telling The Athletic “those schools are where the real value is.” Could the SEC join in on the fun, extending beyond the upcoming additions of Texas and Oklahoma — now with 16 member programs? It hasn’t been ruled out, depending on which ACC programs become available. Those two conferences have set the standard regarding revenue distribution, the root of the frustration from disgruntled schools within the ACC.

“At the end of the day, for Florida State to compete nationally, something has to change moving forward,” FSU athletic director Michael Alford told his school’s board of trustees back in March, stressing that the Seminoles fell $30 million behind SEC and Big Ten programs annually.

Could this be the beginning of the end of the ACC?