College football realignment: UNC, Virginia to SEC more likely than Clemson, Florida State

The subject of college football expansion won't go away amid lawsuits inside the ACC, and now one analyst projects the SEC could target two schools, but not the ones we might think.

North Carolina and Virginia are more likely candidates to join the SEC in realignment rather than Clemson or Florida State, according to a college football analyst. / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

While college football realignment remains a key issue this preseason, the SEC has no desire to expand, with Greg Sankey notably shooting down the idea of Florida State joining the conference, saying he doesn't want to slice his league's pie into even more pieces.

But while it appears the SEC won't be making any phone calls to Tallahassee any time soon, ESPN college football analyst Chris Low suggests the conference might be interested in two other ACC schools if it ever came to that.

"I think there's a better chance you would see more of an appetite for North Carolina and Virginia in the SEC," Low said on The Paul Finebaum Show.

Not go after two of that league's big football brands? There's more to it than just football, Low suggests.

"There's other factors at play here," he said. "New footprints. You get the state of North Carolina, the state of Virginia. Both academically elite schools. You have the basketball factor. You get a little bit of the Charlotte TV market, maybe a little bit of the D.C. market."

North Carolina was among the so-called "Magnificent Seven" schools that rebelled against the ACC last offseason amid other conference realignments, asking the league for a bigger share of the pie.

The conference responded with a proposed plan to pay out larger sums to more prominent schools, but that didn't appear to strike those members as a good-enough long-term plan.

Florida State and Clemson have sued the ACC in an effort to challenge the enormous exit fee the conference charges to members who want to leave before 2036, when the league's current grant of rights agreement is set to expire.

Amid the disputes between Clemson and Florida State and the ACC, speculation has swirled that the schools would entertain membership in the SEC, provided they can get to a settlement in their cases and actually make a move.

But insiders have repeatedly shot down that talk, noting the SEC's existing presence in both states, and culminating in Sankey's comments about not adding Florida State.

At this point, any realignment talk remains complete speculation, given the timeline in play. There are still months, if not years, before we get a decision or settlement in the ACC's cases.

But everyone is paying close attention to what happens there, and possible domino effect that could come out of it.

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