Clemson football: 3 power moves that would solidify the ACC for the future

Three moves Clemson football fans could see the ACC make to solidify itself as a national power

3. Look into possible conference mergers or partnerships

While many national analysts have already ruled this out as a possibility, it still makes sense for the ACC to reach out to the other conferences and look at the potential for a merger or, at least, a partnership.

If the SEC’s ultimate goal is to create a league of 40-60 teams that funnel talent into the NFL, wouldn’t it make geographic sense for their to be a partnership in place with the ACC? Sure, you’ve got the bad of the conference– like Wake Forest and Syracuse– but you’ve also got names like Clemson, Florida State, Miami and even North Carolina who could draw significant ratings.

Maybe the SEC is too high and mighty to consider any type of a merger with the ACC. What about the Big Ten? 

What if we saw an instance where the Pac-12 and remaining Big 12 schools merged together and then we saw the ACC and Big Ten merge together to create a Power-3 and allow the conferences a chance at competing against the SEC? Anything is possible, right?

At the very least, we think it would keep the ACC ahead of the curve to create partnerships with the other conferences even if no merger exists.

Perhaps the ACC and Big Ten have a partnership where they schedule a certain amount of games against one another in the non-conference as a way to bolster ratings and rival strength of schedule against the SEC. Maybe those games happen in place of the FCS and lower-level FBS matchups that we see schools across these conferences schedule each year.

If the ACC can’t add a power like Notre Dame or poach a team or two from a conference, the next  best way to remain relevant is to have a working relationship with those other ‘Power’ conferences in a way to ensure the SEC’s voice and power is minimized– at least as much as it can be– when it comes to the decision-making of the sport.