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The future of Florida State and Clemson continues to hang in the balance as both universities intensify their push to leave the Atlantic Coast Conference. This is expected to have a significant impact on the entire college football landscape.
According to college football insider Greg Swaim, the exit of Florida State and Clemson will lead to the departure of several other teams from the ACC. While the number of schools that could leave is unknown, it is believed that many members want to end their association with the ACC.
This will lead to a situation where the Southeastern Conference, Big Ten and Big 12 will have over 20 members each. In such a scenario, the conferences might need to consider dividing themselves into subdivisions or pods to effectively manage the larger number of teams.
"When FSU and Clemson evacuate the ACC and teams bolt to the B1G, SEC and Big12, those three will each be over 20 and will have to divide up into subdivisions or pods," he tweeted.
Which teams could leave the ACC?
It's hard to predict the teams that could leave the ACC, although many programs do intend to exit the conference.
Notably, seven current ACC members held private discussions in May to assess how they could navigate the conference's air-tight contract to find a solid exit strategy. The teams were Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, Miami, NC State, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
All seven teams might proceed with a plan to leave the ACC. However, they will have to pay the conference a massive exit fee worth $120 million. Also, there will be a need to challenge the conference grant of rights in court to finalize the exit.
The ACC minimum membership and TV deal
The exit of many teams from the ACC could put the conference in a difficult situation regarding its long-term television deal with ESPN. The agreement, which runs till 2036, gives ESPN the right to renegotiate the contract terms if the conference membership drops below 15.
The conference added Stanford, Cal and SMU during the offseason, but should more teams leave than anticipated, the ACC might have to acquire more members from the Group of Five conferences to ensure it meets the minimum membership requirements to safeguard its current television deal.
