When news broke Thursday that Southern Cal and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten in 2024, it sent shockwaves through the college sports landscape.
Mark Packer and Wes Durham had plenty to talk about on the final edition of the Packer and Durham show on ACC Network on Friday, and Packer gave his thoughts on the latest wave of conference realignment, which follows the eventual move of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC.
“We’re sitting on the front row of the most transitive time in the history of college sports, and there’s no doubt,” Packer said. “100 years from now, whatever college sports looks like, assuming it’s even in existence anymore, they will look back at this run — between COVID, name, image and likeness, this move in terms of Oklahoma, Texas, USC — and all of this will be in history as far as what happened with college sports.”
Packer also spoke about what this all means for the ACC and talked about the “temptations” that current members of the league now face amid the latest wave of realignment.
“As far as the ACC goes, it’s a really, really important time,” he said. “It’s going to be fascinating to see how this plays out. The conference as a whole has got to be buttoned up, and if there’s some people that are thinking about it… I’m telling you, there’s going to be all kinds of temptations here left and right.”
The ball is now in the court of Notre Dame, which has long been an independent, and reports indicate that the Big Ten is waiting on a decision from the Irish.
Packer says the Irish will have to make a decision one way or another, sooner or later.
“So, I’m kind of curious to see how the league moves forward, and I’m really interested to see Notre Dame,” he said. “Notre Dame is sitting there going, OK, now what? I’m just telling ya, at some point in time, you’re going to have to make a decision if you’re the Irish — whether it be tomorrow, whether it be five years down the road. You can bark about independence all you want, but we’re just going in a different universe, man. Independence is going to be like a foreign language, in my opinion.”
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