3 ACC teams that look imminent to leave FBS powerhouse in wake of FSU triggered conference realignment
The votes from the Atlantic Coast Conference's Jan. 12 meeting on whether the conference should sue the Florida State Seminoles were revealed. While this is certainly something that indicates struggles, the ACC has been dealing with such issues for a while.
The voting is about officially counter-suing the university as Florida State attempts to make confidential documents public. Let's look at three teams that could be looking elsewhere for a conference to call home through conference realignment.
3 teams that could look to leave ACC
California Golden Bears
While the California Golden Bears are still not officially members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, they could already be planning their exit strategy. This is going to be interesting as the Golden Bears are not viewed as a top-tier program, as they were searching for a new conference after the collapse of the Pac-12 Conference.
With California not voting for the lawsuit against Florida State by the ACC, they will be potentially looking at their next option, and their stay with the Atlantic Coast Conference could be cut short.
North Carolina Tar Heels
The North Carolina Tar Heels also did not vote in favor of the Atlantic Coast Conference suing the Florida State Seminoles and could be a major factor in another conference's realignment. To be fair, they were in the interim stages of their university's chancellor, so they abstained from the vote.
However, if they were to leave the ACC, the Tar Heels would get a lot of attention from multiple Power Five conferences. There is a lot of money out there for UNC as a dominant basketball and strong football program.
Clemson Tigers
The Clemson Tigers did not vote for the ACC to sue the Seminoles and, in fact, have their own lawsuit against the conference as this article is being written. The Tigers suing the conference could be reason alone to put them on this list.
Could the only other non-SEC team outside of the Michigan Wolverines to win a college football national championship in the last decade make more money in a conference other than the ACC? The answer is a predominant yes.