https://www.on3.com/teams/north-carolina...acc-world/

From Rob Harrington

Bullets:
1. UNC seriously interested in leaving ACC
2. Leaving would cause spiritual demise of conf
3. UNC no longer publicly defending conf
4. Traditionalist know they’ve lost; business model changed and preserving rivalries with Duke, Nc state and UVA probably won’t be the same in a conf move.
5. Change has arrived at the doorsteps, at some point heels will be going to different conf



To me, when UNC joined “the coalition”, fsu, Clemson and Miami, in formally requesting the cap get moved to 22 without any required independence years, I figured that group wanted the Big Ten to have more spots to expand with to get this wave going. But this article, from what I’ve seen, seems to hint that winning over the Carolina traditionalists by protecting or carrying over as many of their rivalries to their next conference seems to be a way to garner more internal support for such a move.

(10-06-2026 07:45 PM)murrdcu Wrote:  https://www.on3.com/teams/north-carolina...acc-world/

From Rob Harrington

Bullets:
1. UNC seriously interested in leaving ACC
2. Leaving would cause spiritual demise of conf
3. UNC no longer publicly defending conf
4. Traditionalist know they’ve lost; business model changed and preserving rivalries with Duke, Nc state and UVA probably won’t be the same in a conf move.
5. Change has arrived at the doorsteps, at some point heels will be going to different conf



To me, when UNC joined “the coalition”, fsu, Clemson and Miami, in formally requesting the cap get moved to 22 without any required independence years, I figured that group wanted the Big Ten to have more spots to expand with to get this wave going. But this article, from what I’ve seen, seems to hint that winning over the Carolina traditionalists by protecting or carrying over as many of their rivalries to their next conference seems to be a way to garner more internal support for such a move.

Forget the Notre Dame nonsense. The Big Ten would die of joy if they landed UNC, Duke, UVa and Miami. That's precisely why the SEC needs to go for those 4. To date the Big Ten has not added any school that wasn't AAU at the time of admission. I don't think that changes. If the SEC scooped those 4 the Big Ten will look to Cal and Stanford, and possibly Colorado.

(10-07-2026 12:29 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-06-2026 07:45 PM)murrdcu Wrote:  https://www.on3.com/teams/north-carolina...acc-world/

From Rob Harrington

Bullets:
1. UNC seriously interested in leaving ACC
2. Leaving would cause spiritual demise of conf
3. UNC no longer publicly defending conf
4. Traditionalist know they’ve lost; business model changed and preserving rivalries with Duke, Nc state and UVA probably won’t be the same in a conf move.
5. Change has arrived at the doorsteps, at some point heels will be going to different conf



To me, when UNC joined “the coalition”, fsu, Clemson and Miami, in formally requesting the cap get moved to 22 without any required independence years, I figured that group wanted the Big Ten to have more spots to expand with to get this wave going. But this article, from what I’ve seen, seems to hint that winning over the Carolina traditionalists by protecting or carrying over as many of their rivalries to their next conference seems to be a way to garner more internal support for such a move.

Forget the Notre Dame nonsense. The Big Ten would die of joy if they landed UNC, Duke, UVa and Miami. That's precisely why the SEC needs to go for those 4. To date the Big Ten has not added any school that wasn't AAU at the time of admission. I don't think that changes. If the SEC scooped those 4 the Big Ten will look to Cal and Stanford, and possibly Colorado.

Michigan State was not AAU at time of invitation, but you are correct: the SEC should be aggressive and grab the best brands and markets in the ACC before the big ten can.

The best six would be your four, UNC, UVA, Duke, Miami, and then FSU and Clemson. Maybe one of the last two gets booted due to Nc state or vt are needed to get added quickly. It all depends on how the state politics interferes when it’s time to pull the trigger.

Also, from the what I gathered from the article, the “traditionalist” group inside Nc-ch would probably be satisfied if two of the three were future conference mates, (devils, Wolfpack, wahoos) played once per year in football and twice in basketball with the other one playing as often as possible.