Clemson football: ACC, Big Ten merger could make a lot of sense

Clemson football fans are anxiously awaiting to hear about potential news that might effect the program related to conference realignment.

Texas and Oklahoma are reportedly leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC and that is going to have a ripple effect that will be felt throughout the entire landscape of College Football. The main question we want to know here? How will it effect Clemson football?

The Tigers have been on top of the entire CFB world for quite some time, but their conference prestige- which was already relatively low- just took another major hit with the additions that we’re seeing in the SEC.

SB Nation’s Tomahawk Nation posted a roundtable discussing the future of Florida State in the ACC and the publication brought up an interesting idea: An ACC/Big Ten merger.

We’ve heard a lot already about rumors pertaining to the Pac-12 picking up the remaining Big 12 schools to form a 20-team league. Could we see the ACC and Big Ten respond in some similar manner?

Why an ACC-Big Ten merger makes sense on some levels for Clemson football

Here’s the thing: It’s not likely that we see the ACC and Big Ten merge together. The two conferences have functioned on different levels over the past few years and their leadership groups are on opposite ends of the spectrum on many issues.

That  being said, nothing can be completely thrown out at this point.

The ACC and Big Ten both know to remain relevant and not be completely surpassed by the SEC that they’re going to have to make moves. This is especially true with the ACC, as we’ve discussed. 

What if the two conferences decided to come together, buy-out a few member institutions and form their own 20-team league with Notre Dame included?

The ACC with Notre Dame currently has 15 schools. The Big Ten currently has 14 schools. To get to 20, they’d have to cut nine.

So, who would be in? Well, we took a look at the brand recognition and the revenue generated by athletic departments and here’s the 20 names we decided to keep in this scenario (in no particular order):

• Clemson
• Ohio State
• Penn State
• Michigan
• Notre Dame
• Wisconsin
• Iowa
• Michigan State
• Florida State
• Miami
• Virginia Tech
• North Carolina
• Nebraska
• Louisville
• Minnesota
• Indiana
• Virginia
• NC State
• Pittsburgh
• Purdue/Duke

You could make a case for a few of the bottom schools either way- like we added Duke based solely on basketball revenue-  but the ‘definitely in’ group would consist of some of the top programs in the nation and remember that this is more about College Football than it is any other sport. Why? That’s where the revenue is coming from.

You could set up with four pods with five teams apiece. Then the groups would play at least 4-5 teams outside of their pods each season. It would be a lot of fun and would absolutely garner television revenue in a major way.

This ACC/Big Ten conference would at least be able to compete with the SEC in terms of brand recognition on some level and would set forth in motion the new era of College Football in a way that may potentially even outshine the SEC.