Mack Brown reacts to being called a part of the 'Magnificent 7'

It was an interesting spring in college football, with the impending moves of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten and Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC once again getting the wheels spinning on conference realignment. A ‘Magnificent 7’ emerged in the ACC as schools in that conference push to stay on level pegging with the other two leagues.

North Carolina‘s Mack Brown just sat back and watched.

“It was really interesting when we were sitting in the meetings and the Magnificent 7 was written about, and then one of the coaches turned to me and said, ‘You’re one of the Magnificent 7,'” Brown said on the Paul Finebaum Show this week. “And I said, ‘Could you tell me what that means?’ And they basically said, ‘You’re trying to get out,’ and I said, ‘No, everybody’s trying to get more money.'”

The Magnificent 7 — Clemson, Florida State, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech — were looking at ways around the league’s Grant of Rights, which prevents them from leaving the conference without hefty financial penalties.

They also explored potential ways to change the league’s revenue sharing formula, potentially adding in some performance-based payouts for high achieving teams.

The long-term goal, obviously, is keeping up with the Jones. And the Big Ten and the SEC are beginning to lap the field.

“If somebody’s going to make $95 million, you’re going to make $31, you’ve got to look to make $95,” Brown said. “That’s just part of the deal. So I went through this in the Big 12, when Texas, OU, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech were going to the Pac-12. And then ESPN decided they didn’t want FOX to get all of those so we got the Longhorn Network, and that was the craziest thing that’s ever happened. And that stayed in place until it looks like now with Texas going into the SEC it’s out.

“So I’ve learned that there’s so many moving parts behind the scenes that really and truly everybody’s trying to steal everybody’s in. And they talk about coaches sometimes with the lack of integrity, I’ve seen some of the administrations that slip in the last minute, grab somebody and don’t tell ’em that they’re coming.”

For now it looks like the ACC will stay intact and the Magnificent 7 will remain on board. That’s already a bit of a shift from where things stood prior to the ACC meetings this spring.

In any case, Brown isn’t very worried about what will happen with his Tar Heels.

“I know North Carolina’s got a great brand,” he said. “We’ve been assured that we’re going to be able to either stay in the ACC if it stays together or we’re going to have great options if it doesn’t. So I’ve really put very little thought into that because North Carolina’s going to be OK.”