Realignment in college football remains a hot topic this preseason, but the SEC doesn't want to expand and Greg Sankey shot down the idea of Florida State joining the SEC, saying he didn't want to further slice the league pie.
But while it doesn't appear the SEC will be calling Tallahassee anytime soon, ESPN college football analyst Chris Law suggested the SEC could be interested in the other two ACC schools if that were to happen.
“I think there's a good chance that there will be more interest in North Carolina and Virginia in the SEC,” Law said on The Paul Finebaum Show.
Why not go after the league's two big football brands? It's not just about football, suggests Law.
“There are other factors at play here,” he said. “There's new footprints. North Carolina and Virginia. They're both strong academic schools. There's a basketball component. There's a little bit of the Charlotte television market, maybe a little bit of the Washington, D.C. market.”
The University of North Carolina was one of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” schools that rebelled against the ACC last offseason as other conferences were restructuring and asked the league for a bigger share of the pie.
The conference responded by proposing a plan to pay larger amounts of money to the more prominent schools, but that didn't seem like a good enough plan in the long run.
Florida State and Clemson sued the ACC to challenge the huge withdrawal fees the conference charges members who want to leave before 2036, when the ACC's current entitlement agreement expires.
As the dispute between Clemson and Florida State and the ACC continues, there is speculation that the two schools would consider joining the SEC if a settlement could be reached and action could be taken.
But insiders repeatedly denied that story, pointing out that the SEC already has a presence in both states, ultimately culminating in Sankey's comments about not adding Florida State.
At this point, any talk of restructuring remains pure speculation, given the upcoming timeline: It may still be months, if not years, before there is a ruling or settlement in the ACC lawsuit.
But everyone is watching to see what happens there and what domino effects it could have.
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Insiders predict Clemson and FSU will soon leave ACC
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