The talk lately around college athletics has been centered around conference realignment as USC and UCLA bolted from the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten starting in a few years. Now, the rumors are out that more teams will leave conferences and there will be a total shakeup soon.
That includes the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Teams like UNC, Clemson, Miami, Florida State, Duke, Virginia, and more have been brought up in terms of leaving and finding a new home with revenue sharing being the main factor. But for the conference, it has a contract through 2035 that makes it difficult for teams to leave.
However, all it would take is six according to an analyst.
The News & Observer’s C.L. Brown wrote on realignment and what it would take for the teams to get out and legally challenge the grant of rights:
The number is six.
There’s talk around the ACC that there doesn’t have to be a major upheaval for the league’s demise. If just six current members decide they want out and legally challenge the league’s grant of rights, the rest of the conference — and the deal that tethers it together — could come crumbling apart.
That’s not a guarantee that the contract signed by every ACC member, originally in 2013 then again for an amended version in 2016, can be broken. And a litigious process and potential negotiated exit fee wouldn’t happen quickly.
The problem for the ACC is that they could fall back with the SEC and Big Ten making moves to land teams. The ACC doesn’t want to fall behind in this race and needs to figure something out.
And as always, money will be a big factor in this especially if top tier teams do want to leave the conference.
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