The PAC 12 was killed to get rid of 4 pieces of dead weight. Oregon St, Wash St, Stanford and Cal. The Big XII followed their MO and picked up solid pieces in the 4 corners, increasing their hoops rep with Arizona. Even though it’s an overall reduction in prestige from losing TX and OU, the B12 is still solid. I am also having a hard time envisioning the SEC and B1G adding many more schools. The space in the P2 (and B12) is filling up and, most importantly, the money pool is drying up. The B1G has the richest contract and Oregon and Washington were forced to take ACC-level payouts for 6 years. This with the uncertainty of what the next contracts will look like. I am starting to see that ND is going to remain independent for the rest of our lifetimes. They will make it work and the major conferences will acquiesce. So, the whole “ND and team X from the ACC gets added to the B1G” thing probably is not going to materialize. Now back to us: The ACC added two pieces of PAC 12 dead weight to the 4 pieces they already had. So, more dead weight has to go. So, you look at the ACC’s current dead weight. Wake Forest, Boston College, Syracuse and Duke (sorry, but that Duke football program is not grandfathered into the P2 the way Vandy and Northwestern are). Then you add Stanford and Cal. You know, those 6 schools sure do seem to have a lot in common. Academic prestige. Lots of private schools. Great non rev sports programs. Very poor football followings. We call these schools the “Private ACC” I’m not sure how SMU gets sorted here, but I’m leaning Private ACC. There are 10 ACC schools that could gain a lot by being unaffiliated with these programs moving forwards. We call the schools the Breakaway ACC. (Remember the Breakaway Big East?? Lol). ESPN would lose basically nothing by dropping those 6-7 schools from their football TV matchups on a weekly basis. And CFP isn’t giving the ACC a dime for the same 6 programs. The CFP $$ is for FSU, Clemson and Miami, and the 10-12 national championships they possess. (Yes, VT played for a title 25 years ago. It doesn’t matter to the CFP. Except for the fanbase it helped build that allows VT football to be profitable and a compelling football matchup for FSU, Clemson and Miami). So, the money. Let’s say ESPN reduces the Breakaway ACC payout by $100M so they have something to offer the Private ACC. $488 million divided by 10 is $48.8M per school. 13.7% of the CFP $$ divided by 10 is $19M. So…$67M per school for the football Breakaway ACC. That works. This is a path for FSU and Clemson to get money more on par with the SEC and B1G without joining them. I would have to think that would be acceptable to them. This also allows the Breakaway ACC to entice WVU and/or Cincinnati in the future if so inclined, due to superior revenue compared to the B12. The Private ACC then gets the $100M leftover from ESPN ($14-$15M per school) Then maybe looks to add a UConn, Tulane, USF to their ranks. The Breakaway ACC also leaves their NCAA Basketball units to the Private ACC. Thats 6 years of good money. Altogether, the Breakaway ACC does more for the Private ACC than the PAC 8 left to Stanford, Cal, Oregon St and Washington St. So, the way it is all going down. FSU and Clemson poke all kind of holes in the GOR with their lawsuits (still find that hard to believe, but whatevs…). ESPN now magically has a “lookin” in less than a calendar year where they could sink the ACC media rights deal. Wtf?!?! How does that just pop up out of nowhere when the ACC was supposedly locked in for 12 more years?? I don’t believe in coincidences and those two things aren’t coincidences. The ACC is either getting killed or reborn. Being reborn could be much neater than getting killed. So, back to the Stanford/Cal/SMU thing. Why vote yes if you want to leave, Mag 7? This could have been a parting gift to Duke and Wake by NCState and UNC, sponsored by ND (UNC can vote yes by voting no, they’ve done it before). This was mentioned back when it happened and may have some merit. ND not joining the P2 helps Breakaway ACC teams not guaranteed a P2 spot. Period. So, ND has their desired prestigious connection with Duke, Stanford, BC, Syracuse and Cal. (ND will not be contractually obligated to the football centric breakaway.) They can play 4-5 games against those Private ACC schools and still build a power schedule to get in the Top 10 every year they have a solid coach. The Private ACC gets a football contract with ND. That’s good for them. IDK, seems to make a lot of sense. Although, it also makes sense for FSU, UNC, UVA and Clemson to go to the SEC, while Miami and GT go to the Big Ten, the CFP shifts payouts away from the remaining ACC teams in 2028 and VT winds up in the B12 with WVU, NC State, Pitt and Louisville. Then the same 10 teams end up in the P2 + B12 🤷‍♂️ ** Edited by hokieZ71 at 3/31/2024, 10:22:33 AM