Clemson football: 3 biggest ongoing conference realignment storylines

Conference Realignment storylines for Clemson football fans to watch

Storyline No. 2: What does the ACC do outside of Notre Dame?

The top of the ‘to-do list’ for the ACC has been to bring in Notre Dame and that hasn’t changed.

But what about outside of the Fighting Irish?

If the ACC can’t bring in Notre Dame, can the conference afford to sit idly by and allow its regional rival in the SEC to accumulate double the amount of revenue through a television contract?

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has preached “patience” thus far and it would seem from the reports we’ve seen so far that the conference isn’t about to make a reactionary move to the SEC on the surface.

ESPN analysts have pointed to West Virginia, UCF and Cincinnati as potential candidates for expansion and there have even been ideas floated out there about the ACC creating a merger of some kind with the Big Ten to compete with the SEC power.

The ACC needs to be careful about what its move are during this phase of conference realignment and, perhaps, staying still until it’s time to move is the best option.

That being said, the conference still needs to be proactive. The ACC needs to be exploring all of its options- reaching out to Big Ten powers like Penn State (if contractually allowed)- and seeing what might be in its best interest.

No matter how you put it, the ACC has to be serious about being football-minded this time when it  goes through its process of potential expansion.