Well, well, well, Cuse fans, a potential nuke for college sports may have be nearing explosion. If the SEC could get UT and OU, then SEC money will become even bigger than if the Big Ten were to add Notre Dame.
I spent a lot of years trying to explain it to old time ACC fans and Big East fans, and I'll give a quick recap: College sports TV deals are about football, 1st, 2nd, and probably also 3rd. These football based TV deals are first and foremost, preponderantly, about a combination of two things 1) recent TV ratings for league members and 2) average attendance of league members. Average attendance matters immensely because it proves the size and loyalty of the fan bases of league members. Recent National Championships and Major Bowls/Playoffs are small potatoes compared to the above.
The ACC is at a rather alarming disadvantage vis a vis the SEC and Big Ten because we have multiple smaller private schools and even small state schools. For example, UNC would be easily the smallest BT school, and UVA, Clemson, and GT all are smaller than UNC. Then tack on Dook, Wake, BC, and Miami, and large private school Syracuse and large semi-private school Pitt both with small attendance, and you should see the ACC as handicapped.
Size alone, of course, means zilch. Maryland was the largest school in the ACC its entire ACC history, and Maryland has average attendance that would be a joke to all SEC schools but private Vanderbilt.
The best thing that could happen for the ACC out of this is that A&M goes on a hate fest and refuses to accept Texas, which leads to Arkansas people telling their tales of hating Texas at least as much as the Aggies do. If both assert a staunch opposition to Texas, and go public, while agreeing they would vote for OU, they could prevent the offer for Texas. I think the SEC requires 4 No votes out of 14 members to reject. But if 2 schools are strongly opposed to Texas, would the SEC, which is already rich as Croesus, push the agenda and risk rupturing SEC good feelings and good will among members?
To make that stick, the Aggies have to show brains and balls. One thing they must do is contact the ACC about the possibility of joining to stay away from Texas, and make certain the SEC office is fully aware. The ACC should not wait on that; the ACC should contact AM by tonight and offer a safe landing spot with the right to name a 2nd Big 12 member as entering partner if ND still wishes to be a 5/8ths football member. I have no idea if A&M would pick Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, or Ok St, but I would take any of them to get A&M, a huge school with very passionate fans, located in a very large state loaded with football talent.
At the same time, the ACC must assume that this news means Texas and OU are definitely ready to leave the Big 12, because the damage done so far cannot be repaired. The Big 12 as we have known it is now Dead Man Walking. The ACC must make its pitch to the pair. That pitch must focus on football facts: each will have larger advantages in the ACC (based on their football histories and, especially, their average attendances) than they ever can have in the SEC. Anybody who thinks that either OU or Texas has any real shot to dominate any possible SEC division is delusional. Anybody who doubts that both Texas and OU easily could be part of a small group of 3 to 5 schools totally dominating ACC football is equally delusional.
The ACC also must explore if any schools in the SEC East are upset that the SEC may want to move even more to the west, with 2 football Giants. If both Texas and A&M are in the SEC, alongside OU, how much does conference power shift hard westward? How much luster could come off rivalries in the East while new members Texas and OU add to the s e xiness of the Western half of the league? Other than a slightly richer TV deal, what can Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee gain by the SEC adding Texas and OU? Does Tennessee want to immediately become 'the other' and 'the lesser' orange clad UT in its own league?
The ACC must nudge the non-Elite SEC football members (Arkansas, Mizzou, Ole Miss, Miss St, Vandy, UK, SoCar, even A&M, Tennessee and Auburn) to realize how much harder it will be for them to ever have back to back to back league winning teams if both Texas and OU join what is already an SEC Murderer's Row of Bama, LSU, Georgia, Florida (and A&M, Tennessee, Auburn). Does Ole Miss need more TV money just to get knocked further down the SEC football hierarchy? Does UK? Does Mizzou? Does Vandy have any need whatsoever of an SEC with 2 more gigantic state schools that have massive, and filled, football stadiums?
It is possible for the ACC to gain from this. It also is possible that the ACC could be forced farther back.