Report: ACC "Scrambling" To Create Next-Best Power League

ESPN's Pete Thamel said the ACC, home conference of the Pitt Panthers, is "scrambling" to create a new power league.

PITTSBURGH --  ESPN's Pete Thamel is expanding upon the all but certain rumors that USC and UCLA will leave the Pac 12 for the money and status of the Big 10. On Tuesday, Thamel reported that the ACC. Home to a selection of schools and athletic departments in a college athletics middle class, including the Pitt Panthers. 

Pitt is in the same boat as a number of different schools like Louisville, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Virginia Tech and others. As another round of conference realignment approaches, Pitt is not an obvious candidate to join the SEC or the Big 10. Now, the ACC is going to have to compete with the Big 12 and Pac 12 for the remainder of the Power Five.  

With reports that the Big 12 was initiating talks with multiple Pac 12 schools, the ACC is falling behind in the race to create the next "super conference" that can counter the new "Power 2". 

Notre Dame, who already has a running agreement to play six ACC opponents each year, is the biggest fish in the pond unclaimed by the Big 10 or SEC and perhaps the only fish big enough to move the needle for any conference. 

But Notre Dame traditional position as an independent gives them scheduling flexibility and the College Football Playoff does not mandate that it's opponents must compete in or win a conference. For that reason, Thamel doesn't expect the Irish to make any hasty decisions. 

"The only certain trigger for expansion among the Power 2 in the near term is a move by Notre Dame, which for now appears to be taking on a century-old strategy of patience."

The good news for the ACC is that they will likely be able to retain many of their current members because change would be costly. Not only are there old television contracts to outlast and new ones to negotiate, but the costs of exiting the ACC could run north of $100 million even before legal fees are incorporated, according to Thamel. 

"For the ACC schools to bounce, there's a legal briar patch no one - the poachers or the schools wanting to leave - is eager to navigate," Thamel wrote. "University presidents and conference commissioners are generally averse to legal issues; deposition is a dirty word in higher ed. Those factors, combined with exit fees and legal fees tied to grant of rights that could run more than $100 million, might make it so the juice of adding teams isn't worth the legal and fiscal squeeze - at least in the short term."

If there is change, it would likely mean that UNC, Clemson, Florida State and Miami move out of the ACC, but for now, they are the leaders of a conference that hopes not just to survive realignment, but come out of it as a distant, but still somewhat equal, peer of the SEC and Big 10.

"The most jockeying, consulting, back-channeling and speculation are centered around the race for No. 3," Thamel said. "With the Big Ten and SEC having established themselves as a Power 2, the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 are scrambling to attempt to solidify or build the next best league."

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