(10-24-2026 03:47 AM)murrdcu Wrote:  with news of Miami’s President announcing that they will not remain in a second rate conference, the presumed independence route of them and several other ACC schools has taken the national headlines. The actual interesting nugget is that Amazon is interested in acquiring the rights of these possible independents. That surveys two purposes; gives the schools leverage when negotiating with the P2 and it signals that Amazon desperately wants CFB inventory.

I mentioned earlier in this thread that a great way to add the schools that the sec presidents want (UNC and uva) and the brands that espn would probably prefer to keep away from the B1G (FSU, Miami, Clemson, Duke). It would seem to be a hard sell to get espn to pony up six prorata increases for all these new members. What if a new partner gets added to the sec broadcasting family? An Amazon or a Netflix or a Paramount/TNT? Heck, I could see Fox kicking a can and asking how much picking second weekly from the sec schedule would cost given some weeks the big ten lineup ain’t that great.

Personally, I like the idea of locking up all those schools.

Florida State and Miami in the SEC would lock down the state for the SEC. USF would be a growth property for the Big Ten if they really wanted to get into the state, and it wouldn't shock me if they went that direction. They've essentially done it before with Rutgers. Nonetheless, the SEC owning all 3 national brands based in FL could not be equalized by the B1G.

Virginia, UNC, and Duke would give you a triangle of elite schools in that region that give you a great presence and give you strong basketball brands too.

Clemson completes the list with another strong football brand, a historic and regional rival of current SEC schools, and honestly, a little bit better penetration in the state of NC...they have a decent sized fan base in that state so it's a backdoor for anyone to get into NC. In this scenario, it just helps secure any meaningful presence there. Lots of Duke fans are not in NC so they don't really add so much in that area, but they would be a valued rivalry for both UNC and UVA.

ESPN should be interested in maintaining control over all those properties. The ACC would be weakened, but might not lose anyone to the Big Ten in that scenario. Maybe, maybe not. The ACC still has a strong core in order to attract some schools for rebuild, possibly from the Big 12, and their network helps them maintain strong profitability.