The Clemson football program has absolutely dominated the ACC over the last half-decade and nothing seems to be standing in the way of that continued dominance in the future.
There were rumors circulating towards the end of last week that Clemson, along with Florida State, Michigan and Ohio State, had serious contacts with the SEC about potentially joining and forming a super conference of at least 20 teams.
Those rumors were shut down by many because of the ACC’s Grant of Media Rights deal, which is in place until 2036, and basically cements schools into the conference until that point.
However, national CFB analyst Andy Staples appeared on the Paul Finebaum show earlier this week and said he wouldn’t be surprised if Clemson and Florida State potentially challenged that Grant of Rights deal to see how it would hold up.
"“Does the Grant of Rights in the ACC hold up? It runs through the ESPN contract through 2036 and those schools should be tied down to that conference theoretically until that time. But would anyone try to challenge it? Would Clemson want to go to the SEC, would Florida State want to go to the SEC? If that thing holds up, I don’t know that you’ll see complete rearrangement, but if somehow it didn’t, things would get really interesting,” Staples said."
Could Clemson football challenge the ACC Grant of Rights in a move to attempt conference changes?
At this point, it would seem unlikely to us that Clemson would challenge a grant of rights deal that was just put in place a couple of years ago and there would have to be some specific circumstances in which the Tigers could draw from- perhaps NIL- to potentially make that work.
Though we are skeptical about the idea, we should note that Staples is a nationally-renowned analyst and that tells us that, even if he is speculating, we could be seeing more major changes to the landscape of College Football.
The most likely scenario is that Clemson football stays in the ACC, but we wouldn’t put it completely out of the question- as some are doing- that the Tigers could join the SEC if everything went right.
Again, we’re not calling for it to happen or even saying that Clemson or the SEC have mutual interest in one another, but we’re just pointing out that stranger things have happened in College Football and this is an everchanging landscape.