ACC should still fear the future

While the Big 12 avoided a total collapse as Texas decided to stay on board being a Tar Heel fan, meaning I am one of the Atlantic Coast Conference as well, I look at this in a much different way. In other words for the ACC this is not good news! How so you will ask, in the end the mega conference that would have been the Pac-16 is not going to happen. The answer is pretty simple: the next time that conferences come calling they will be armed even more than the Pac-10 was when it tried to take in the Longhorns. In other words, the Pac-10 could not bring in Texas with a vision, but in four years there won’t be vision, there are going to be facts, numbers (aka dollars), realities and all of that is going to be a lot harder to fight against if you are a conference commissioner.

So, in a few years, when the moves will be felt in the football landscape and the conferences try again to make power moves the ACC best be ready to be on the attack or at least be ready to defend any and all moves from other conferences, or better said, the ACC needs to be ready to take on the SEC. Yes, this conference of ours needs to get bigger, and that is coming from someone that truly hated going from nine to twelve teams.

Right now the Southeastern Conference can only promise things to any team they would like to take in. But in 2014 or 2015 they will able to prove to those same teams what it means to expand into a major/mega conference. Then what? Then what is going to be the plan to keep the teams that have football first on their mind and are in the ACC? Today the SEC has to figure out how to get Florida on board with having another team from the sunshine state in its conference, but in four years, when the Gators see what it means to have as many teams as possible, that problem might not exist anymore. Then what? Then how does John Swofford keep FSU and/or Miami (Fl) from jumping ship? Same thing could be said for South Carolina and Clemson. Those of you that think that the ACC is ok as is I believe you are not seeing the whole picture or not wanting to see it.

So, let’s celebrate today ACC, cause the “clean dozen” is going to stay intact, but do not sit on this, because in 3-4-5 years max this whole process is going to start back up. And it will do so with facts not promises and with many conferences ready to pounce on the best of the best. If the Atlantic Coast Conference wants to last in this changing NCAA world it has to do so by having a plan to attack (the Big East most likely) as soon as possible, which would already mean taking the second group after the Big Ten has a taste of them this year. Buckle everyone this ride is going to get bumpy real soon!

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