Paul Finebaum debates if the SEC would prefer to add UNC, Virginia over Clemson, FSU

The ACC has been mired in lawsuits with Clemson and Florida State over the conference’s Grant of Rights deal, as the two schools appear interested in leaving for either the SEC or the Big Ten. Recently, the various sides agreed to settle those lawsuits, seemingly opening them up to moving out of the ACC in the future.

ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum discussed this potential movement during a recent appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. There, Greg McElroy argued that the SEC would have more interest in North Carolina and Virginia, meaning that Clemson and Florida State need to look to the Big Ten if they truly want to leave the ACC.

“I believe you’re right,” Paul Finebaum said. “And, by the way, I believe a lot of fans out there are going, ‘I understand North Carolina but what’s the deal with Virginia?’ Let me explain it… if you look at what the SEC has done in recent years, they just went out and got Texas and Oklahoma, the premier state schools. That’s important to remember. North Carolina is standalone. It’s a preeminent university but it also has good athletics and it used to have good basketball. Virginia doesn’t have that, but they are a brand.”

The SEC doesn’t currently have any members in the states of North Carolina or Virginia. That means those schools can be unique brands to the conference, that come with institutional prestige, regardless of success on the football field. That makes them different from Clemson and Florida State, which are schools where football is the driving force.

“I think if you’re sitting there with 16 SEC presidents, they would much more likely gravitate toward North Carolina and Virginia who I also believe are drafting partners to use a NASCAR phrase, as opposed to Clemson and Florida State, which for all their football prowess and they are the last two ACC schools to win national championships, they don’t offer very much in anything,” Finebaum said.

“Clemson is inferior to South Carolina as an academic institution. Then you have the same situation with Florida State. They are behind the other state schools, as well as private schools, in Florida. So, I don’t think either one of them have much to offer, and quite frankly I’m not really sure why the Big Ten would want either one of them.”

The Grant of Rights that Clemson and Florida State took issue with essentially locked teams into the ACC through the end of their current media deal, which runs through 2036. That gives the schools less the chance to make more money, either on a new deal or by jumping conferences. Now, with the lawsuits settled, it will be easier to leave the conference once again.

One key to the settlement was the exit fee. If schools leave before the 2029-30 school year, they would pay around $200 million. However, leaving after, that number then drops to “well below” $100 million. In 2026, it will be an exit fee of $165 million, dropping $18 million annually until it settles at $75 million in 2030-31. Schools also keep their media rights, which they wouldn’t have with the Grant of Rights.

There is also a new revenue distribution for the league’s current media deal. It’s based on a five-year rolling average of TV ratings and will pay out more to teams who bring more eyes to the ACC.

This was a battle fought in court by Clemson and Florida State to leave, either for the SEC or the Big Ten. However, as Finebaum explained, both sides have to see a benefit. On the football field, there is some benefit for the SEC, but there are a lot of reasons why other ACC schools are more intriguing, and leaving the conference got easier for those schools too with the settlement.