Athens

Brett McMurphy - ACC's Jim Phillips on current/future membership: "I've said this multiple times: I want this to be a place where schools want to be, not have to be. So I'll leave it at that. I want people to want to be in the ACC, not forced to be in the ACC."

Doesn't matter your politics, LA governor's involvement with LSU athletics shows you that the words and actions of state politicians make all the difference. Virginia politicians should learn from him and realize that it is in the Commonwealth's best interest for the Hokies to be in the P2 and do everything in their power to make sure it happens. ** Edited by Athens at 10/31/2025, 12:15:30 AM

doubt that an athletic director of a BIG school has inside info on BIG's expansion plans. And BIG/SEC will expand before they contract.

Joined at the hip and going to the SEC. Now that a legit source reported the SEC is interested in UNC and Clemson, he completely changed his tone by claiming he already knew.

"A succession plan is in place at North Carolina, as North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham will pass off his current role to Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing President Steve Newmark when his tenure is over. Newmark represented the Southeastern Conference in multi-media deals, partner agreements and marketing projects during the league's emergence as a leader in the industry 20 years ago." Cunningham will be AD until next year and stay at UNC. Newmark has a UVA law degree but doubt it means anything for conference realignment.

Starts around 22:50 - Interviewer asks why UVA is investing in football. AD says whether it's conference realignment, TV deals or sponsorships, they want to be a part of a national landscape and make sure they have options moving forward. Only time conference realignment is mentioned in the entire video. Her speech is likely scripted propaganda but the assistant AD does a double take when she mentions conference realignment. Compare that with Babcock's comments from 2 years ago. “The tough thing about being an AD in times of conference realignment, real or perceived, is there’s nothing you can really say that’s the perfect answer. If you are undyingly loyal to your conference, which the ACC’s been great to us, then your fan base thinks you’re ignoring reality. If you come out and say you want to keep your options open, you’re not exactly making friends in the room and with the commissioner.”

Led by Saban to address NIL, transfer portal, conference realignment and other issues. Surprised this hasn't been discussed yet.

UVA and UNC are on opposite ends for every major ACC decision. And they are nothing alike as schools. UVA continues to move to the left while UNC is shifting towards the center. And public ivy argument makes no sense. SEC has several elite academic school with Vandy, Texas, Texas A&M, Florida and UGA. If UNC wants an academic partner to go to the SEC then Duke is the obvious choice with alums, fans and faculty. In conclusion UVA and UNC aren't joined at the hip. They're not even in the same body.

VT/Miami - UVA for, UNC against. Publicly VA politicians pressured UVA but rumor is they didn't want us in the SEC Calford/SMU - UVA led the way, UNC was against Suing FSU/Clemson - UVA led the way and publicly condemend them, UNC was against Non sports - UVA condemned current happenings, UNC did not

Wasted 30 minutes of my life so you don't have to. He said UNC/UVA are in his words "joined at the hip" to leave the ACC because of their academics, are on the same page about every major ACC decision and being the South's oldest rivalry. He thinks UNC will get UVA into SEC/BIG. Right off the bat you know he made everything up because UNC and UVA have been on opposite sides of every major conference move the last 20 years. UVA took the lead in suing FSU/Clemson, was instrumental in getting the votes for SMU and Calford and voted for VT joining (admittedly not 100% voluntarily). Meanwhile UNC was absolutely against all of it. UVA's leadership have said only positive things about the ACC and condemned FSU/Clemson. UNC higher ups have said the opposite. Also UNC/UVA is not the South's oldest rivalry. UGA and Auburn started playing each other earlier and played the same number of games. No one at UNC or UVA cares about their "rivalry." VT is UVA's biggest rival by far and the only school that they care about. For UNC there are at least 3 bigger rivalries and all of them are more joined to UNC's hip than UVA. Finally, let's just assume for fun it's true that UNC and UVA are "joined at the hip." No one in the SEC/BIG cares. They're not going to let rookie UNC invite whoever it wants only to let it weaken the conference. Take everything Fluguar says with a grain of salt.

Most metrics have FSU, Clemson and UNC above VT in getting a P2 slot with some having Miami above. There's a good argument why VT should be the #1 target for SEC or BIG. 1. FSU - BIG doesn't care because they're not AAU. SEC doesn't care because they add nothing that UGA and Florida don't already bring. Proven to be a cancer and brings baggage of not being a team player. Will FSU sue SEC/BIG when things don't go their way or that they deserve more money than Vandy or Rutgers? 2. Clemson - same as FSU but replace Florida with USC. 3. UNC - Huge MBB brand but realignment is all about football and UNC falls way short. People love to talk about their potential to be a top program, but their ceiling is no higher than VT's. If you look at overall athletics, UNC is nothing special outside MBB and some women's sports but no one cares about those in realignment. 4. Miami - Mind boggling how anyone finds them to be attractive. VT has a much stronger program, fan support and alumni base (so does almost half the ACC). Miami is only being carried by its legacy that died 20 years ago. VT - football is #1 priority and a makes lots of money, unparalleled and passionate fan support despite the program struggling for a while, huge and wealthy and influential alumni base up and down the entire east coast, shares same cultural values as SEC schools, natural rivalries with several existing SEC schools, top academics in STEM. Zero reason why VT shouldn't be the #1 target in realignment. Only thing holding VT back is state politics.

Heels just fired Mack. Interested to see if they get someone with a SEC or BIG background...

Would have been perfect for ESPN Gameday but they'd rather go to a BIG game with bigger names broadcasted by a different network. To be fair Clemson vs. 5-3 Louisville is on ESPN but shows you that bigger brand names matter more to the networks than better matchups/records.

1. 4 ACC teams vs. 4 SEC teams. All 4 ACC teams have been rumored some some source (some more credible than others) as joining the SEC in the future. Still early but SEC won both games vs. ACC teams so far. Lower ranked Florida upset Clemson in the supers. In the regionals the higher ranked ACC/SEC team beat their lower ranked counterpart. ACC baseball is probably dead when FSU, Clemson and UNC leave. SEC baseball will likely monopolize the CWS. 2. VT deserves a P2 spot over UVA. A Omaha bar sells jello shots with most profits going to charity during the College World Series every year and keeps tabs on how many each school sells. Made a few headlines nationwide. UVA is dead last again for the second straight year. The 7th place school has almost double the sales. Last year they finished dead last behind teams with tiny fanbases like Stanford, Wake, TCU and Oral Roberts. Shows you how little their fans care or travel to support them. We all know the Hokies will be at or near the top when we make Omaha. SEC and BIG also know this and guaranteed neither conference will take UVA over VT. You can even argue that Wake would bring more money and fans than them.

Roccos sells jello shots with most profits going to charity during the College World Series every year and keeps tabs on how many each school sells. Actually made quite a few headlines nationwide. UVA is dead last again for the second year so far. The 7th place school has more than twice the sales. Last year they finished dead last behind teams with small fanbases like Stanford, Wake, TCU and Oral Roberts. We all know the Hokies will be at or near the top when we make Omaha. SEC and BIG know this and guaranteed neither conference will take them over VT. You can even argue that Wake would bring more money and viewers than them. ** Edited by Athens at 6/15/2024, 6:55:00 PM

backchannel talks

This line is concerning. Sounds like VA politicians and UVA are trying to hold us back.

UVA president’s court document says he, Sands and presidents of Duke, Wake, Syracuse and BC agreed to sue FSU without consulting the rest of the ACC. Look at that group. Bunch of smaller schools with terrible football programs that have no shot of getting into the P2. We are the outlier. UVA being hellbent on suing FSU is proof that the rumors of SEC and Big 10 wanting them are false. That’s because we’re much better option. We know VA politicians want Tech and UVA in the same conference. Therefore the only reason why Sands is on team UVA has to be VA forcing us to stay on the sinking ACC ship with them.