Clemson Football: Deadline for ACC exit comes and goes

As expected, the deadline for teams to notify the Atlantic Coast Conference that they intend to leave following the 2023 athletic season came and went on Tuesday without any school giving such notice, including Clemson Football.

While there was some intrigue about the deadline considering all of the realignment news that has been happening for the past month, most in the industry thought it was unlikely that an ACC program would leave this year.

The passing of today’s deadline doesn’t necessarily mean the recent realignment is completely over for the ACC. All it means is if any teams decide to leave from this point on, they will have to wait until after the completion of the 2024 athletic calendar. The earliest they could compete in a new league would be the 2025-26 seasons.

This deadline also doesn’t rule out the possibility that the ACC could decide to expand, though that possibility seems to be fading. Twelve of the fifteen voting members would need to approve any additions, and at least four programs – Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, and North Carolina State – oppose any additions.

The most likely candidates for inclusion are Stanford and California. SMU has been the third team discussed, though it seems their candidacy has less support.

Clemson Football will be in the ACC for the 2024-25 athletic calendar

Assuming no blockbuster agreements are struck, the ACC will be the only major conference that won’t see major changes to its membership when fall sports start in 2024.

• The SEC will be adding Oklahoma and Texas.
• The Big Ten will be adding Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington.
• The Big 12 will lose Oklahoma and Texas, and gain Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah (this follows the additions of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF this season)
• The PAC will lose Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Utah, and Washington.

The PAC will only have Stanford, California, Oregon State, and Washington State in 2024 as things stand now. There are rumblings about teams perhaps joining the PAC-12, but nothing concrete yet.