The ACC Kickoff is finally here, and while we should be talking about what football will look like in the conference this season, it is actually time to talk about what has become an annual topic: realignment. That’s right, after the lawsuit against the ACC was settled in favor of the member institutions, mainly Clemson and Florida State, the talk around conference realignment has become a bit louder, and in the middle of the talks this week is UNC.
Inside Carolina’s Greg Barnes reported that multiple
sources stated that UNC is interested in a potential departure, which is both new and old news. It is old news because we knew that they had explored the option previously, but it’s new in that we are now having this conversation post-lawsuit. The amount that it will cost UNC to exit the conference will drop year-to-year, and so doing so has become a more palatable option. I encourage all of you to read Barnes’ post if you want the full scope of everything, but here are the highlights of what he reported:
- If UNC were to leave the conference, the earliest we can expect them to do so would be 2027. That is because the departing institution must report that they are leaving the June before their eventual exit. So, if UNC decides they want to leave in 2026, they will actually leave the conference in 2027 and pay $147 for the pleasure.
- By 2030, the exit fee drops all the way to $75 million, which reportedly will serve as a “final line of demarcation” for some schools. If a school wants to leave badly enough they could leave before then, but we could see a mass exodus around the time that the exit fee is the lowest that it will get.
- Should UNC leave the conference, they are allegedly interested in the SEC. While academic personnel would prefer for the school to head to the Big Ten, it sounds like the SEC is where all of the athletic interest is.
- Steve Newmark is taking Bubba Cunningham’s job next summer, and it is said that he will work closely with school chancellor Lee Roberts in getting out of the ACC.
My first thought in reading Barnes’ piece is that the conversation surrounding realignment is going to be really hard to suppress now that schools will have to engage in revenue sharing with student-athletes. Money has always been critical for Division 1 schools, but there has never been a time where it has been more critical than the moment that we are in now. Generating more revenue isn’t just for the usual university/athletics program reasons anymore: it’s now to pay players. I’ll be honest: I’m in a perpetual state of annoyance with realignment rumors, but at the same time the last thing that UNC can afford to do is fall behind in the money department, especially considering the fact that they have one of the better athletics programs in the country.
The second thought that I had is that these moves usually revolve heavily around football, and so far UNC hasn’t proven that they would be able to hang with either the Big Ten or the SEC. I’ll be clear, here: that doesn't stop you from generating more revenue in your new conference, but when looking at what kind of success you would have in either conference when it comes to the gridiron, I can’t help but cringe. Maybe Bill Belichick fixes that while he is on campus, but until we actually witness success, I feel like the Heels would be doomed to have little to no football success unless some very dramatic changes came with heading to either conference.
My final thought is that if UNC’s target is the SEC, when would an exit be realistic for both parties? Greg Sankey would have to be ready to pull that trigger, but also UNC would have to be ready to pay whichever exit fee they find to be palatable. Also, what happens between now and then? Does the ACC figure out a way to come up with something that proves to be lucrative to the school? Do we even have multiple power conferences anymore, or do the Big Ten and SEC become two large obnoxious conferences? I say this to say that we could be a ways off before this is anything serious, but also it could be sooner than later if UNC feels decent paying whatever it takes to leave.
At the end of the day, we are still in the same place that we were a year ago, which is nobody knows what the heck is going to happen. We know that UNC is allegedly very interested, and we know where they allegedly have their sights set, but it is indeed all alleged. Where there’s smoke there’s usually fire, though, so we shall see how the next however many years play out. We could be chanting that really obnoxious thing that the other conference chants five years from now while the Heels are getting rolled by the Tide in Tuscaloosa.
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- Theo Pinson will enter the NBA Draft; won’t hire an agent
- UNC football recruiting: Tre Turner names North Carolina in his top 10 schools
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