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ESPN insider reveals teams the ACC could seek to poach for conference expansion

20200517_134556by:Justin Rudolph•07/12/22
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After seeing two of the other Power-5 conferences make significant plays in adding new schools to their respective conferences, the ACC might need to follow suit in order to keep pace. Right now, the conference is working on a plan to join forces with the Pac-12. But if the ACC elects to go in another route and poach schools from other conferences, who would they target? Well, on Monday, ESPN’s college insider Pete Thamel revealed the likey teams the ACC would pursue.

“Well, I think it would have to be a bit of a marketplace for the ACC network. The guidepost, there would be bigger population markets,” said Thamel. “So it wouldn’t be West Virginia, which is a great program. It’s certainly no knock on West Virginia. It’s just not a very populated state. If you look at what the ACC would do if it was to make a play for like a Western Front, basically, it would be maybe Cincinnati, a couple of Texas schools, and then some of those higher-end West Coast schools.

The majority of the major schools in Texas currently represent the Big 12. Outside of Texas, which has plans to join the SEC by 2025, the conference is still home to Baylor, TCU, and Texas Tech; two of the three rank in the top five in sports revenue in the state of Texas. As for the higher-end West Coast schools, they are primarily in the PAC 12. The ACC is already turning the numbers with those schools in mind while considering a merger of the two conferences. Outside of that, the options are scarce when it comes to adding additional schools to the conference.

Right now, there are not many options for the ACC to choose from. And any likely moves that happen in the near future will only solidify them in third place of the Power-5 conferences. For now, the ACC must play it cool and weigh all its options. Because the last thing the ACC wants to do is become the conference that is getting poached from. Especially since they still have high-quality schools in their own right in North Carolina, Clemson, Miami, and Florida State.