Big Ten expansion 2025: Is the B1G targeting ACC football giants after poaching 4 Pac-12 schools?
The ACC is in danger of losing some of its more important schools, as rumors surface that Florida State and Clemson are looking to break the conference's Grant of Rights. With a lack of interest from the SEC to receive the breakaway schools, the terrain could be set up for the Big Ten to sweep them away.
Almost every collegiate athletics conference in the US has a short contract with its member schools called a Grant of Rights. Through it, all member schools transfer their broadcast rights to the conference. The Grant of Rights grants the conference ownership of Clemson's home game broadcast rights through 2036. The ACC's Grant of Rights explicitly states:
"...Each of the member institutions hereby (a) irrevocably and exclusively grants to the Conference during the Term all rights necessary for the Conference to perform the contractual obligations of the Conference expressly set forth in the ESPN Agreement, regardless of whether such Member Institution remains a member of the Conference during the entirety of the term..."
In July of this year, WRAL Sports Fan got a hold of a copy of the conference's Grant of Rights. You can read the rest of the agreement here: https://wwwcache.wralsportsfan.com/asset/colleges/ncsu/2022/07/05/20361238/ACC-Grant-of-Rights-1-DMID1-5vgd1w2if.pdf
Initial breakaway attempts and the ACC's expansion
Back in May, a report by Sports Illustrated had seven schools, led by Clemson and Florida State, meeting with lawyers to explore their options regarding how they could get away from the Grants of Rights. It was later revealed that the schools involved in the scheme were Clemson, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Desperate to keep these schools, the conference's leadership brought in Stanford, California, and SMU to raise the revenue share by $4 million for all member schools. Apparently, this didn't send the intended message, as Clemson, Florida State, and North Carolina all voted against the inclusion of the new schools.
Florida State's athletic director Michael Alford said this regarding their decision to vote against the inclusion of said schools:
"All three schools are outstanding academic and athletic institutions, and our vote against expansion does not reflect on their quality. We look forward to earning new revenue through the ACC's success incentives initiative, based on our continued excellence. We're grateful to the league for continuing to listen to our concerns. This is a process that is ongoing, and we will continue working with Commissioner Phillips and our conference partners on the success initiatives and revenue-sharing plans."
Is the B1G targeting ACC football giants after poaching 4 Pac-12 schools?
There hasn't been any official word, on the record or otherwise, from either the breakaway schools or the Big Ten on communications regarding another possible expansion. However, many experts agree that it would be the only logical destination for schools like Clemson or Florida State.
For example, Craig Shemon, a Big Ten expert from the Locked on Big 10 podcast, had this to say last month about the possibility:
"I think the Big Ten wants to go to 20, and that's why they didn't take Stanford and Cal even though a lot of the school presidents wanted them, they wanted to keep that open real estate in case they got a better team. And you look at those football-centric teams in the ACC like Clemson and Florida State, they are looking at the math...and they want a piece of that action."
Recent reports regarding breakaways in the ACC
A recent report by Gene Sapakoff has an anonymous source at Clemson quoted as saying they are "very confident" they would be able to join the conference. This, paired with a report by CBS Sports Marc Ryan that has Clemson and Florida State reaching out to the SEC for potential members, has insiders believing that the rebel schools may have found a way out of the Grants of Rights.
However, the same reports claim that the SEC wouldn't be interested in welcoming the seven breakaway schools. SEC officials are considering that Clemson and Florida State wouldn't be able to bring the same viewership numbers that Oklahoma and Texas will be bringing for next year.
With that in mind, the Big Ten looks like the most likely place for the ACC schools to go. One of the main reasons for the schools' desire to break away is the projected $30 million gap in revenue between their conference and the SEC and Big Ten by 2026. According to analytics firm Navigate, by 2029 the annual per-school revenue for the Big Ten would be $94.5 million and the ACC's $55.3.
While Navigate's estimates are no longer accurate, given the big moves that have happened with the all but the assured dissolution of the Pac-12, it paints a clear picture of why some big schools wanted in on some of the more profitable conferences. It also shows what the incentive would be for Clemson, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech to join the Big Ten.
The Big Ten's Poaching of the Pac-12
This wouldn’t be the first time the Big Ten attempted to take teams away from a rival conference. The Pac-12 is currently down to two teams; it’s on life support. One of the main contributors to this situation was the Big Ten's poaching of its schools.
USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington all announced they were leaving for the Big Ten next season. All schools were motivated to leave due to the Pac-12 lackluster revenue scheme. This expansion also affected the Atlantic Coast Conference, which reportedly was considering adding some of the Pac-12 schools before the Big Ten and Big 12 came in and swooped up almost all of them.
It wouldn't be all that surprising to see the schools from the ACC do the same and join a conference with a better revenue scheme that has a history of accepting breakaways.