Paul Finebaum says ACC is in 'a lot of hurt' as a conference

Conference realignment has been a major storyline this offseason in college football, but thus far nothing has changed for the ACC.

Yes, there has been plenty of noise with the league. Florida State has made it clear that it wants out of the conference, and the ACC recently explored adding Stanford, Cal and SMU.

But while the Big Ten and Big 12 have taken in new schools this offseason, and the Pac-12 has fallen apart, no one has left the ACC or entered the conference this summer. ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum appeared on SportsCenter Saturday morning and shared that he believes the ACC is in some serious trouble moving forward.

“I was surprised that (voting in Cal and Stanford) almost passed. It needed one more vote to let these two schools in and quite frankly, this conference is in a lot of hurt right now,” Finebaum said.

Although it now looks like Cal and Stanford won’t be added, Finebaum doesn’t believe that it would have helped the ACC even if they did join the conference. It doesn’t appear as though the ACC, or its teams, have many options to get back on track.

“Adding Stanford and California was not going to solve the problem,” Finebaum said. “You have members sniping at each other. Remember a week ago Florida State had a public meltdown and a Board of Trustees meeting saying, in essence, we’re better than the rest of the league. We deserve more money. They clearly want out. So does Clemson, I believe. North Carolina, other schools are looking around but it’s almost impossible for anybody to get out. So is it really going to help adding new members? The answer is no, it will not.”

Dan Mullen shares feelings on money impacting conference realignment

Money has been the driving force behind so many teams changing conferences, as well as some teams in the ACC wanting out of the league.

Former Florida head coach Dan Mullen recently spoke about college presidents making decisions based on money.

Mullen shared his thoughts during an appearance on ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Wednesday. He realizes as well as anyone that money is driving these choices but added more blame needs to go on university leadership rather than athletic departments, considering where the leftover money is going to end up.

“It is a shame. And you get into what drives this, the whole realignment, is the money, right? It’s the TV rights, it’s the money,” said Mullen. “Don’t think it is just the athletic department or these people wanting it. It is the president of the university that’s sitting there and saying, ‘If I move over to this league? I essentially just got a massive donor giving money to the school.’”

“The TV money is going to go above and beyond the athletic department budgets,” Mullen continued. “Guess where that surplus goes? And guess what the presidents (are saying) when they sign that deal? Athletic department? You get this much of the cut – but the university gets the rest.”