ESPN insider reveals what the ACC could do if it decides to further expand

The ACC is one of the conferences with question marks as the latest round of conference realignment kicked off last week. Friday, ESPN’s Pete Thamel discussed what the next steps could be for the league as it tries to keep up with the Big Ten and the SEC.

USC and UCLA’s seismic moves from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten will put the league at 16 teams in 2024 — just before the SEC goes to 16 with Oklahoma and Texas coming in. That led to questions about the ACC and whether it could counter those moves.

One option Thamel discussed was a potential merger, but he shot that down right away because of how it would impact the College Football Playoff. If the ACC merges with another conference, that other conference would be taken out of the CFP conversation entirely, which would likely be a non-starter.

But a potential media agreement between the ACC and Pac-12 has been thrown around and, depending on the value, could be something Thamel said the ACC could look at doing.

“If the number crunching on the ACC arrangement with the Pac-12 come back underwhelming financially — and that’s the expectation — things could potentially go from collegial to predatory in a number of directions.

“Here’s the question that ACC commissioner Jim Phillips must answer through the context of this potential move. The ACC already has a large amount of low-wattage inventory in football schools like Syracuse, Boston College and Duke. Why take on the Pac-12’s have-nots, too?”

Pete Thamel explains whether an ACC/Pac-12 partnership is a serious possibility

Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger first reported the idea of the media partnership, which would see Pac-12 games shown on the ACC Network or another ESPN network on the west coast. But Thamel threw some cold water on it on Friday, saying the value might not be there.

“The real play here is geography and quantity, as ESPN already owns all of the ACC rights through 2036 and would benefit from a presence on the West Coast, in particular for Saturday night football inventory,” Thamel wrote. “But no one should hail this potential partnership as some sort of financial haymaker, especially for the high-end ACC schools worried about falling way behind the SEC and Big Ten. It’s novel, but unlikely to be a game-changer.”

This week, the Pac-12 voted to immediately start negotiating its next media rights deal. The league’s current agreement ends in 2024 — the same year USC and UCLA will join the Big Ten.