Mack Brown: The ACC is in 'great shape'

Conference realignment chatter is constantly popping up these days. And with good reason. On Thursday, the Colorado Buffaloes made it official that they’re leaving the Pac-12 Conference and moving back to their original home, the Big 12. They’ll make the move official in 2024.

With that news popping up, it’s got plenty of conferences across the country on edge, especially the Pac-12, for obvious reasons. Recently at ACC Media Days, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown said he feels like the league is in great shape, but they’re still looking at ways to make more money.

“I think the ACC is in great shape,” Brown began. “The whole concern is finances. That’s what everybody is looking at now. With the TV market changing so rapidly, your all lives are changing all over the place with radio and TV and newsprint. We are at a time where there’s a lot of change, not only in our business but college football.”

He noted how the ACC doesn’t get the credit it deserves. The league has plenty of talent top-to-bottom, but they’re just looking at more ways to bring in cash.

“The thing that we’ve got to do in the ACC is keep looking at how we can make more money. The league is great. We’ve got some great teams. I think we’ve been to, what, nine-plus teams have been to bowls since 2015 or something. There’s a lot better teams top to bottom in this league than get credit because Clemson has been so dominant, they’ve gotten all the credit, but there’s been some really good teams,” Brown said.

The Tar Heels head coach explained the league is looking at ways to make as much money as other leagues moving forward.

“I feel like the league is in great shape. I know that the Commissioner and all the presidents and athletic directors are all looking at how to make more money and how to enhance that package, so we will have the same amount of money as the other leagues as they move forward.”

Brown doesn’t exactly give a ringing endorsement that the ACC won’t lose any teams in the near future. After all, money has been the driving factor in conference realignment for the past few decades. The only thing that is predictable in college football at this point, is unpredictability. There was also a report on Thursday evening from Espn.com’s David Hale that said the conference is “absolutely” open to expanding.

We’ll have to see how it all shakes out in the future.

Brown and the ‘Heels will face a challenging slate this year

One thing Brown is not shying away from in the 2023 season, is competition. The Tar Heels’ schedule this season is pretty tough, but that doesn’t phase him.

North Carolina has a tough non-conference schedule in the 2023 season, opening up the season with a matchup versus South Carolina followed by hosting Appalachian State and Minnesota in back-to-back weeks. But at ACC Media Days, Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown revealed that he is fully embracing the challenge and asking his team to do the same.

“I told [the team] it’s the toughest schedule I’ve ever been involved with, and that’s fine,” Brown said. “It’s what it is and it’s not changing. So, let’s not gripe about it, let’s go play it. And it won’t be mentioned again after today, because they know that we’ve got our hands full. GameDay coming to South Carolina game is huge, season tickets are sold out. I’m so excited. We’re in a great place to take another step and now we’ve just go to do it.”

On3’s Kaiden Smith and Riley Gates also contributed to this article.