Conference expansion: ACC has to be about football this time around

New ACC president Jim Phillips must be on the offensive side of conference expansion and cannot take the same approach that former commissioner John Swofford had when he accepted Miami, Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Virginia Tech.

We can all complain about more changes coming to college football – the NIL, immediate transfer eligibility, coaches pay, expanding the College Football Playoff, and more conference expansion but the fact is all of that is happening whether anyone likes it.

For that reason alone, Phillips cannot wait until the SEC makes their moves to make his. The worst thing that could happen to the ACC is to miss out on Notre Dame again while giving them what they want and then adding teams like Liberty, App State, or Central Florida.

ACC conference expansion has to be about football this time around

John Swofford loved to lie to everyone about the decisions he made were in the best interest of the ACC but, it was nothing more than what was best for schools along tobacco road. Adding Boston College, Syracuse and Pittsburgh didn’t gain the conference the television sets they swore it would because they expanded with basketball in mind, not football.

College football is second to only the NFL in this country and that must be the thinking as the ACC certainly expands in the next few years when Texas and Oklahoma jump for the SEC – no matter how much crying Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher does, Texas is joining the SEC.

Phillips will have an early opportunity to endear himself to ACC fans across the southeast by making sure the conference is not left behind during this next round of expansion.

He has to understand that expansion and league makeups are no longer confined by geographic location.

Miami to Syracuse is a little more than 1,400 miles apart. Using that as a barometer, the ACC should seek to add teams like Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and any other big brand school that has the same distance as those schools do.

Conference expansion is about nothing more than money and if Phillips can prove to other programs that jumping to the ACC will make them more money than they currently receive from conference contracts, he will be able to attract several other big brand schools from the Midwest to the East Coast.

That should be the goal, not settling for second or third tier behind the SEC.