ACC, PAC-12, and BIG alliance / conference realignment

[orangefog]

School name ends in “State”, this checks out.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

This is what 2026-27 looks like today:

ACC	SEC	Big 12	Big 10	Pac 12	AAC	MWC	CUSA	MAC	Sun Belt	Independent
Boston College	Alabama	Arizona	Illinois	Oregon State	Army	Air Force	Delaware	Akron	Appalachian State	Notre Dame
California	Arkansas	Arizona State	Indiana	Washington State	Charlotte	Hawaii	FIU	Ball State	Arkansas State	UConn
Clemson	Auburn	Baylor	Iowa	Boise State	East Carolina	Nevada	Jacksonville State	Bowling Green	Coastal Carolina
Duke	Florida	BYU	Maryland	Colorado State	Florida Atlantic	New Mexico	Kennesaw State	Buffalo	Georgia Southern
Florida State	Georgia	Cincinnati	Michigan	Fresno State	Memphis	San Jose State	Liberty	Central Michigan	Georgia State
Georgia Tech	Kentucky	Colorado	Michigan State	San Diego State	Navy	UNLV	Louisiana Tech	Eastern Michigan	James Madison
Louisville	LSU	Houston	Minnesota	Utah State	North Texas	Wyoming	Middle Tennessee	Kent State	Louisiana
Miami (FL)	Mississippi State	Iowa State	Nebraska		Rice		Missouri St	Miami (OH)	Louisiana–Monroe
NC State	Missouri	Kansas	Northwestern		South Florida		New Mexico State	Northern Illinois	Marshall
North Carolina	Oklahoma	Kansas State	Ohio State		Temple		San Houston State	Ohio	Old Dominion
Pittsburgh	Ole Miss	Oklahoma State	Oregon		Tulane		UTEP	Toledo	South Alabama
SMU	South Carolina	TCU	Penn State		Tulsa		Western Kentucky	Western Michigan	Southern Miss
Stanford	Tennessee	Texas Tech	Purdue		UAB			UMass	Texas State
Syracuse	Texas	UCF	Rutgers		UTSA				Troy
Virginia	Texas A&M	Utah	UCLA
Virginia Tech	Vanderbilt	West Virginia	USC
Wake Forest			Washington
			Wisconsin

 

[WoadBlue]

School name ends in “State”, this checks out.

If UNLV changes its name to Nevada State, then it can join the Pac. Problem solved.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

If UNLV changes its name to Nevada State, then it can join the Pac. Problem solved.

Sorry. Already spoken for.

Nevada's Four-year Teaching Institution - Nevada State University

Nevada State University, the four-year teaching institution in NV. Small class sizes, great professors and a welcoming community

nevadastate.edu

 

[Scooch]

I don't understand the PAC's end game now. Utah State? Big school, high pop growth state, that makes sense. But it's not a brand and it's not going to bring any additional value to a TV deal.

The PAC is going to end up with a deal that's somewhere between the current MW deal and the current American deal. So what's the point? They could have done a reverse merger with the MW, cut a new deal (which was expiring in 2 years anyway) and ended up in the same place.

Realignment continues to be rash and reactive.

 

[orange79]

I don't understand the PAC's end game now. Utah State? Big school, high pop growth state, that makes sense. But it's not a brand and it's not going to bring any additional value to a TV deal.

The PAC is going to end up with a deal that's somewhere between the current MW deal and the current American deal. So what's the point? They could have done a reverse merger with the MW, cut a new deal (which was expiring in 2 years anyway) and ended up in the same place.

Realignment continues to be rash and reactive.

Maybe it's not their end game, but I think they may be playing the longer-term game at this point.

Before they can lure some schools that actually bring value., they may feel they need to add enough teams just to be able to call themselves a "viable" conference. Utah St and others fit that bill, I guess.

 

[Scooch]

Maybe it's not their end game, but I think they may be playing the longer-term game at this point.

Before they can lure some schools that actually bring value., they may feel they need to add enough teams just to be able to call themselves a "viable" conference. Utah St and others fit that bill, I guess. View attachment 245214

Yup. The PAC clearly thought they were going to build the strongest conference in the group of 5 (or is it group of 6 now?). Hence courting those AAC schools.

But when they declined I'm not sure the PAC has a strong plan B. I don't blame the AAC schools, ~$10million/year isn't enough to join a cross-country conference. That only works financially with power conference money.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

I don't understand the PAC's end game now. Utah State? Big school, high pop growth state, that makes sense. But it's not a brand and it's not going to bring any additional value to a TV deal.

The PAC is going to end up with a deal that's somewhere between the current MW deal and the current American deal. So what's the point? They could have done a reverse merger with the MW, cut a new deal (which was expiring in 2 years anyway) and ended up in the same place.

Realignment continues to be rash and reactive.

They are the #3 team in the state and only get 19k per game. Seems like plan D to me.

 

[WoadBlue]

Sorry. Already spoken for.

Nevada's Four-year Teaching Institution - Nevada State University

Nevada State University, the four-year teaching institution in NV. Small class sizes, great professors and a welcoming community

nevadastate.edu

Who knew? Maybe they would change their name to Nevada Tech so UNLV can be in the Pac.

 

[WoadBlue]

They are the #3 team in the state and only get 19k per game. Seems like plan D to me.

It may be a shot at BYU.

 

[Scooch]

It may be a shot at BYU.

Huh? Can you explain what a "shot at BYU" entails?

 

[WoadBlue]

Huh? Can you explain what a "shot at BYU" entails?

BYU has many fans who have been hard bashing the Pac for years for not taking BYU. During that same time, BYU also decided that it could no longer play Utah St annually as it had for the most part for many decades. That always is central to any Utah St fan. They now will rub Pac membership for them in BYU faces all the time.

 

[Scooch]

BYU has many fans who have been hard bashing the Pac for years for not taking BYU. During that same time, BYU also decided that it could no longer play Utah St annually as it had for the most part for many decades. That always is central to any Utah St fan. They now will rub Pac membership for them in BYU faces all the time.

Ah. OK.

I'm sure the BYU fans will dry their tears with the stacks of million dollar bills they're getting from the Big 12.

 

[JRHEETER]

PAC 12 is trying to get to 8 teams

They have to get to 8 teams to stay in FBS.

NCAA gave them a two year grace period to try and get up to 8 teams to stay in FBS.

So they aren’t being terribly picky.

 

[TexanMark]

PAC 12 is trying to get to 8 teams

They have to get to 8 teams to stay in FBS.

NCAA gave them a two year grace period to try and get up to 8 teams to stay in FBS.

So they aren’t being terribly picky.

The Pac12 is a slightly better MWC

 

[Toga]

PAC 12 is trying to get to 8 teams

They have to get to 8 teams to stay in FBS.

NCAA gave them a two year grace period to try and get up to 8 teams to stay in FBS.

So they aren’t being terribly picky.

Incarnate Word come on down.

 

[Chip]

Ah. OK.

I'm sure the BYU fans will dry their tears with the stacks of million dollar bills they're getting from the Big 12.

Ha. The PAC's new expansion strategy is spite.

 

[HtownOrange]

Incarnate Word come on down.

I was thinking we could all chip in a buck or two for the UConn to PAC campaign, but IW works, too.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[Hoo's That]

I have reread in a number of places that Utah has not signed a full Big 12 GOR, which means it is easy for Utah to announce its leaving in a couple years. If that is the case, the ACC should be all over Utah right now. If Utah gets into the ACC, then you can bet that both Arizona and AZ St are going to want to follow as soon as they can.

C'mon over, Utah, and give us that lacrosse AQ!

Per our board, UVa is giving Utah another taste of the MLax high life in C'ville this spring. We played them in 2019.

 

[WoadBlue]

Ha. The PAC's new expansion strategy is spite.

No, but the Pac would know all about BYU and why Utah St would woo the Pac so hard. And know that if Pac membership helps Utah ST that it will to some degree hinder BYU, which will always have animus against even the name Pac.

So the Pac gets a quick and easy #7.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[HtownOrange]

Thanks, OX.

Some interesting takeaways:
- PAC is essentially the MW and has little value, the PAC will be a G5/6 conference
- PAC TV advisers are not working with concrete numbers and the AAC teams are cautious and skeptic about the money.
- FSU has spent $3MM on the lawsuit [I thought they would have exceeded this mark by now, regardless, this is money FSU does not really have to waste, based on their own court filings and the fees keep going up]
- Bret McMurphy does not think there is any way out for FSU and Clemson, the latest action is only to save face (financial incentive based on TV ratings)
- ACC has approached the lawsuits from a position of strength [I think the majority on this board agrees with this, though we still vary regarding the accuracy of the ACC's position]
- SEC and B1G don't want one or two teams from ACC but will take several if ACC falls apart. [This was especially interesting because McMurphy speculated 2-4-6 teams to the B1G and most of us on this site and other sites agree the SEC would have some interest in as many as 8-9 - UM, FSU, CU, GATech, UNC, NCState, UVA, VATech, Louisville]
-SEC and B1G are content to wait out the ACC GOR to pick off teams, though both will likely act if the ACC falls apart {They will not be incentivizing any schools to leave early, this is consistent as both conferences would have taken the new schools early but they had to get out on their own w/USC/UCLA then the other PAC teams leaving at the end of their GOR and UT and OU buying out their last year of the GOR]

 

[David321]

I know that the PAC isn't going to be a power conference anymore but glad it will still exist. Regional too.

 

[OrangeXtreme]