Clemson football: The absolute worst case-scenarios for conference realignment

The absolute worst case-scenarios for Clemson football in ACC realignment

Worst Scenario No. 2: No enhancements are made to the ACC

Let’s say Notre Dame isn’t added to the league. The ACC can’t afford to sit idly by and do nothing.

I’ve seen many analysts argue that the ACC should simply not doing anything. They say the conference should just be patient and wait.

That’s fine for a conference like the Big Ten that is making $50 million per year per school in television revenue, but if the ACC can’t make some moves to open up renegotiations with ESPN on the network, things are only going to get worse for the conference as a whole.

We’re not say make moves just for the sake of making moves. If the ACC brings in West Virginia and an AAC team like UCF, that might be enough to open up renegotiations, but it’s still going to fall way flat of the numbers we’re seeing out of the SEC.

At some point, those numbers matter for Clemson football.

We’re not saying that Dabo Swinney won’t overcome his program being $30 million behind the SEC programs- because he’s already doing it with a $15 million deficit- but it certainly doesn’t make things any easier, especially in the new world of NIL.

The ACC has to have enhancements and we’re not sure exactly where they’re going to come from. One of the greatest enhancements to the league would be to see Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech become relevant again, but that seems like a pipedream at this point.

If the conference doesn’t do anything and we don’t see proactive moves made, the ACC will fall behind and, sadly, it’s already behind.