ESPN's Pete Thamel provides 'soft deadline' for ACC expansion decision

Conversations have started back up about ACC expansion with the focus staying on Cal, Stanford and SMU. Conference officials met earlier this week, as On3’s Matt Connolly reported, and ESPN’s Pete Thamel said they’ll likely meet again.

Although another meeting isn’t scheduled, Thamel indicated there could be a “soft deadline” looming.

Week 0 kicks off Saturday, but Thamel said Week 1 could be a possible deadline for the ACC to make a decision on expansion. Of course, the most important factor in the decision is how the finances line up.

“Those conversations are ongoing right now,” Thamel said Friday on College Football Live. “The athletic directors from the ACC met last night. They had a phone call and they will meet again. There has been no meeting determined as of yet. But I imagine these conversations are going to spill into next week. A week from today, I feel like there’s a soft deadline of Week 1 and the season starting. We’ll have some clarity on that. There’s still some optimism, there’s still feels like there’s some momentum for this to happen.

“It comes down to money, like most things in realignment, and how that money that SMU and ‘Cal-ford,’ as they’re called — Cal and Stanford — end up getting divided up in a success pool amongst the current ACC teams.”

Cal and Stanford are two of the remaining “Pac-4” from the Pac-12, and SMU could be looking to leave the American Athletic Conference. The Mustangs have indicated they’d forgo revenue for the next five years if they join the ACC.

Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported the ACC could see an additional $72 million in revenue from ESPN if it adds the three programs, and Thamel said the league’s unequal revenue-sharing model is part of the expansion conversation. Florida State has voiced its concerns about the conference’s revenue plan, and Clemson has been a team to watch, as well.

Dividing up the money is part of the ongoing discussions, which is why one more meeting might not be enough.

“It’s likely going to be a pot of money between $50 and $60 million, and that’ll obviously go up as ACC revenues go up, as things go,” Thamel said. “What the presidents met about Tuesday, Wednesday and then the ADs talked about last night was just how to divide that. What percentage of money would the champion get? If you make the playoff, do you get this much money? But it’s a fairly complicated conversation because they aren’t just going to give money to Florida State and Clemson because they’re not happy, right? So you have to set it up for the successful teams to get money. But if you’re one of the teams that maybe doesn’t have a ton of success, you don’t want to box yourself out of potential revenue, either.

“There’s a lot of different agendas right now in the ACC. It’s an interesting moment in time in that league. And getting everybody together on the same page is complicated. I expect there to be a few more meetings, and we’ll see if it gets done.”