Report: ACC Looking to Expand

The Pitt Panthers could have some new neighbors in the ACC.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers could have some new partners in the ACC coming soon, as conference realignment continues to rock the college athletics landscape. 

The leader of the Panthers' league, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, told ESPN's David Hale that the league was actively looking to add schools, but has not yet found a suitor that adds enough value to warrant serious consideration. 

"The ACC has been and remains highly engaged in looking at anything that makes us a better and stronger conference," Phillips told ESPN at ACC Kickoff this week. "We've spent considerable time on expansion to see if there is anything that fits. We have a tremendous group of institutions but if there was something that made us better, we would absolutely be open to it."

The goal of adding more schools to the conference would be, of course, money, according to Phillips. The ACC is currently seeking ways to close the gap between them and the revenue juggernauts of the SEC and Big 10, which far outpace their peers in the rest of the Power 5 and Division I. Hale reports the gap between those two and the ACC could grow to as large as $40 million. 

The Big 12 put some pressure on the league to explore expansion options this week when they announced that Colorado had agreed to leave the Pac 12 and join their rapidly expanding conference. After Oklahoma and Texas announced their decision to leave the Big 12 for the SEC The ACC had some schools in mind when thinking about expansion - namely Washington, Oregon, SMU and West Virginia - but didn't see those additions as valuable enough. 

While there are no guarantees, adding a new school could give the conference a trigger to renegotiate its unfavorable Grant of Rights agreement, which locks them into a lower-than-market rate with ESPN for their broadcast rights.  

"Revenue generation continues to be a priority, but this league is third right now in revenue as we go forward into wherever the next TV deals are for other conferences where, we've looked at it," Phillips said. "We've had multiple TV consultants. Third is certainly a good position, but we want to gain and gain traction financially in order to close the gap with the SEC and the Big Ten."

This comes in the wake of a report from 247Sports' Florida State site that the Seminoles are actively exploring their options to leave the conference. Any school hoping to leave would need to inform the ACC in writing by August 15 and Athletic Director Michael Alford told ESPN that there is no Board of Trustees meeting scheduled for before then. 

"I'm well aware of the narrative and stories surrounding the ACC and our members as well as the frustrations of some of our schools on our financials," Phillips said earlier in the week. "But these are not new. While there are legitimate discussions and stories regarding revenue and our membership, it's important that all of us never lose perspective on just what we are doing together. The bottom line is our conference is strong and I'm extremely bullish about our future together."

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