There are a few interesting property in the Big East (UConn and G’town) but the ACC should look WEST not East.

may as well and join the AAC.

But the myopic thinking of so-called leaders refused think big and do a complete merger at that time. They should have invited all the schools including the basketball only schools. Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall, UConn (Baskeball powers w/o D1-A football) Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College (Old Order BB schools with D1 football) West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami Rutgers and Temple (?). Maybe. FSU. ACC traditional 8. They would have owned basketball for the next hundred years. And football would have gotten traction. Might have been able to lure in PSU had they done it them.

certainly is interesting. Do you remember the "Airplane Conference" that was proposed in the 50's? They were ahead of their time. That conference was: Indiana Iowa State Navy Michigan State North Carolina Notre Dame Oklahoma Army Penn Pittsburgh SMU Texas USC UCLA Yale A different time for sure. ** Edited by Big12 guy at 11/21/2025, 2:20:46 PM

Cal and FSU in the same conference? Crazy.

it’s why the ESPN people are saying UNC and UVA are top candidates for the SEC. Now that can all change, but Sankey himself said we need stronger traditional basketball schools, in new states, we are strong enough in 🏈

most of the true football blue bloods, It automatically put the ACC and B12 in competition with each other. A full on Big East merger is 29 teams, and I don't think anyone realistically thinks that will happen, but if basketball is indeed undervalued, UConn is sitting there for the taking. Since the B12 has another round of contract negotiations coming up around 2030, could the ACC be missing an opportunity with UConn?

Maybe not a full on merger, but I could see interest in some sort of scheduling partnership for everything except football, or at the very least basketball. I imagine that, by the time the **** has really hit the fan for the ACC, Cal and Stanford will have bailed to do their own thing, whatever that ends up being, so it's going to be really funny to me seeing SMU isolated in Texas and flying all around the country to play football and basketball games against Wake Forest and Syracuse for an audience of nobody and getting paid peanuts to do it.

I have seen you forecasting the demise of the ACC for a long time now. I am curious if you have an idea of what will happen after that.

if they don't, they'll go to the Big 12, who I think would be chomping at the bit to welcome them. I see no scenario where VT remains in an ACC where the majority membership is tiny, private schools and G5s; it would be suicide. This prediction is, of course, contingent on the ACC facing an exodus of football brands and resulting existential crisis between 2028-2030, but, at this point, that's looking like a when, not an if. Case in point, this thread references Pitino's comments about an ACC-BE merger, but you've also got Coach K out here saying several current ACC members are clearly going to leave as soon as the exit penalty drops to a manageable amount, and if the ACC wants to survive as a basketball power, it needs to consider NOW how to partner or merge with the Big East. I don't consider Coach K to be the "Chicken Little" type, nor do I think he has any reason to ply in the shock commentary game. So, what's left is that his comments come from a place of genuine concern for the future of the conference he spent almost his entire career and experienced his greatest success in. I think it just goes to demonstrate that it's not some big secret what's about to happen to this conference in just a few years. ** Edited by Baltimore_Hokie at 11/21/2025, 11:23:25 AM

I could see a scenario where a select, few FB schools go to the P2. The remaining public schools go to the Big12; and the remaining private schools merge with the Big East.

would be a slam dunk for schools like Duke and Syracuse. They get to play really great basket ball programs in the BE, and could link up with UCONN to mitigate the holes in their football schedule. Where it's going to hurt for them would be in media rights payouts. I think there's going to be sticker shock for schools like Wake Forest and Boston College when the big exodus happens. They're going to go from getting what they get now annually to getting something like 10-11 million dollars (if they're lucky.)

is still value in the football programs of BC, Cuse, Duke, and Wake. I could see a configuration of those schools with a few AAC schools forming a decent football conference (whatever you call it), and my pull from behind guestimate is that the football part of that league would receive closer to $20M with football and basketball combined. As a matter of fact, I could see football only members joining that football contingent. A tweener between the G and power conferences. The top 1/3 or so of the ACC has real football value, and no matter where VT lands, they will continue to compete at the highest level - it will just be tough financially like is for every school not named Ohio State, Texas, ND, ... etc.

(football vs. non-football) given how the experiment went the first time? Right now the Big East has only 4 schools who sponsor football (1 FBS and 3 FCS) which makes it easy for the sport to be a moot issue within the conference.

has an independent media contract with CBS (don't remember how much). I see them setting up a basketball and Olympic sport conference as they have now. The schools with football, like UConn and others will either become football only members of a conference (like Villanova with the Patriot conference (FCS), or they will attempt to set up a football only conference, completely separate from the Big East. We live in a different time, and football, unless you are in a power conference like the ACC as it currently is, needs to be separated. What if, for example, NCSU was in the new ACC/Big East for basketball and Olympics, and a football only member of the B12. That would be win win for everyone if the ACC faulters. I don't think that will happen as things are now, but you have to admit, things are changing, and changing fast.

The basketball schools would be crazy to agree to it. I could see a basketball scheduling arrangement between the ACC and Big East though.

It won't be VT's problem much longer, though, so whatever.

Syracuse, BC, Duke, Wake would fit in well with the Big East. I think VT, UVa, UNC, NCSU, Clemson, FSU, Miami, GT all check out of the ACC - or reform it under a new name. It's going to be a football version of the Metro --> GMWC conference breakup. Louisville, Pitt, SMU, Cal, Stanford will have to figure out where to go. L'ville, Pitt, SMU seem like good Big 12 additions. Some from the Mag8 may end up with that group too if there isn't a new conference born.

B12, but who the hell knows what will happen. Separating the media contracts would go a long way in determining budgets in regards to pay for the athletes. If basketball is indeed undervalued (they get eyeballs as well), then UConn as an example may be worth the risk for the B12 or even the ACC.