Massive Move in ACC Meetings Makes SEC Meetings Must-Watch Now

Tell us which 'ACC 7' schools you want commissioner Greg Sankey to land

FRISCO, Texas – What was once a get your popcorn ready meeting agenda down in Florida for the SEC may have just turned into a full on tailgate after news of what's gone on in the ACC meetings emerged yesterday.

What was once expected to be a somewhat spirited debate about how to finalize the SEC pod system for 2024 will now almost certainly include gathering thoughts about where various schools stand on picking off a massive chunk of the ACC. According to Outkick.com's Trey Wallace with an assist from Brett McMurphy, a group of schools being referred to as the "ACC 7" are more or less staging a hostile takeover of the conference's lack of discussion in regard to its grant of rights deal.

It's been no secret that Clemson and Florida State have been banging the drum hard to either get more money for their television rights or they will do all they can to find a new conference, which most likely would be the SEC. What wasn't as widely known was that those two schools had assembled a team of five more schools to develop a plan to work together to break the ACC's grant of rights deal one way or another, including research into a nuclear option where all seven leave the conference at once in hopes it would dissolve all obligations.

We now know who those additional schools are. In addition to Clemson and Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Virginia Tech have had lawyers working for months with an eye toward the ACC meetings in Amelia Island. The result of that 4-hour meeting was a tense conversation between athletics directors and conference officials that ended with ACC commissioner Jim Phillips commanding athletics directors to not speak with the media. 

ACC athletic directors emerged from 4-hour meeting w/commish Jim Phillips just now in Amelia Island & said they’re not allowed to talk to media today 👀 https://t.co/omBOwgaTKk

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 15, 2023

That makes the discussions that have been had ad nauseam about which schools to potentially add to the SEC much more real. So many talking points have been immediately generated as to which programs get snatched up by the Big Ten and which find their way to the SEC. A mass departure would immediately create a ripple effect across college football. If the SEC were to take on an odd number of schools from the ACC, then logic determines that the conference will turn westward to even things out. The most likely target would be Oklahoma State, which would ease a few political tensions in Oklahoma, but would throw a little bit of a wrench in the Big 12's plans to become its own super conference by adding Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.

The one subtext that should be obvious is that each of these schools have an exit plan. To make such a bold move without assurances of a landing spot once they depart would be one of the greatest blunders in all of college sports. For instance, if every school except NC State had hand shake deals with the SEC, Big Ten or the Big 12, the Wolfpack could suddenly find themselves as a fill-in for Cincinnati in the AAC for far less money than schools are complaining about in the ACC.

The one thing that's for certain is that the SEC will be ready to pounce when necessary if it's in the conference's best interest. The rest of college football has always been six steps behind the SEC when it comes to thinking forward and acting just before anyone else would see the need to act. 

So since these schools are rather neatly grouped, we'll leave it up to the readers to share their voices as to how they would like this to shake out. We've put together various combinations and spread them across two Twitter polls for SEC fans to vote. There are obviously a large number of combinations, but creating more would simply get too messy.

Poll 1 of 2: Which of these combinations do you want to see the @SEC snag if the ACC 7 bust out of the conference?@theacc @SECNetwork

— Hogs on Sports Illustrated (@hogsonsi) May 16, 2023

Poll 2 of 2: Which of these combinations do you want to see the @SEC snag if the ACC 7 bust out of the conference?@theacc @SECNetwork

— Hogs on Sports Illustrated (@hogsonsi) May 16, 2023

HOGS FEED:

RAZORBACK FANS STANCE ON BASEBALL GETTING OVERALL NO. 1 SEED EASY WAY TO SORT TRUE FANS FROM THOSE HOPPING ON BANDWAGON LATE IN SEASON

FORMER HOG DOMINECK DETAILS WHY HE LEFT ARKANSAS, HOW HE'S ADJUSTING TO LIFE IN COLORADO

VAN HORN CONSIDERED PULLING HOLLAN IN COMPLETE GAME GEM, BUT NOT FOR LONG

RAZORBACKS GET COMPLETE GAME FROM HUNTER HOLLAN TO TAKE SOUTH CAROLINA SERIES ON SUNDAY

NEW OFFENSE UNDER DAN ENOS MAY HAVE SOME CLUES WITH LATEST TIGHT END COMMITMENT

HOGS GET JUST ENOUGH OFFENSE TO TAKE DOWN NO. 6 SOUTH CAROLINA

ARKANSAS HIGH SCHOOL PLAYER HAS FUN WITH AUBURN AFTER RECRUITING INVITE THAT WAS SERIOUSLY WRONG

TAKEOVER OF ESPN RADIO SHOW PROVED HOG FANS WANTED TO TALK ABOUT ANYTHING OTHER THAN TRANSFER PORTAL LATE IN WINDOW

DESPITE GUT-WRENCHING LOSS, RAZORBACK SOFTBALL WAKES UP TO GOOD NEWS

SLOW NEWS DAY, SPECULATION MAKES DEVO DAVIS RADIO APPEARANCE BIGGER NEWS THAN NORMAL

RAZORBACKS COACH DAVE VAN HORN STARTING HAGEN SMITH ON FRIDAY NIGHT BUT NOTHING FINAL ON REST OF WEEKEND.

PLAYERS NOW HAVE AN UNTAPPED BARGAINING CHIP THAT CAN SLOW THINGS DRAMATICALLY IN THE TRANSFER PORTAL

NO EXPLANATION WHY UNIVERSITY PULLED MAKHI MITCHELL RETURN POST

DEVO HAS GROWN MAN DECISION TO MAKE AFTER COMBINE, G LEAGUE SNUB

DEADLINE COMING FOR ANY PLAYERS TO TRANSFER OUT, BUT RAZORBACKS CAN BRING PLAYERS ALREADY IN PORTAL TO TEAM

CASE FOR DAVE VAN HORN AS TOP COACH IN SEC BECOMING FAIRLY CLEAR AS THIS SEASON HAS PROGRESSED

OLE MISS ASSISTANT POSES GREATEST THREAT ARKANSAS HAS FACE IN RECRUITING IN DECADES

POST INDICATES LONGHORNS MAY REPLACE AGGIES AS OPPONENT IN ARLINGTON

DAVE VAN HORN HAS FANS JUMPING BACK ON THE BANDWAGON

RAZORBACKS SWEEP MISSISSIPPI STATE, TIE FOR FIRST PLACE WITH VANDY

HOG FEED: WOULD SAM PITTMAN LET TIGHT END RE-COMMIT GO THROUGH ALL THAT AGAIN?

OLD-TIMERS MAY WANT TEXAS FOOTBALL ON SCHEDULE, BUT WHAT DO YOUNGSTERS WANT FOR HOGS' REGULAR OPPONENTS?

RAZORBACKS GUARANTEE MISSISSIPPI STATE WON'T SWEEP THEM WITH SERIES OPENING WIN

POST-SPRING TOP 25 OUT BUT HOGS NOT ON IT, BUT WHY ARE LONGHORNS IN THERE AT NO. 10?

ARKANSAS BASEBALL SCHEDULE

FAYETTEVILLE WEATHER UPDATE

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