Why not merge with the ACC makes so much sense

PAC 12 Conference News
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according to former ESPN head John Skipper. A potential ACC, Pac-12 should merge to form a superleague would make the new conference more attractive to a potential lucrative TV and media rights sponsorship.

Skipper said previous reports of ESPN no longer being interested in a partnership with the Pac-12, he believes, are false.

“I think the ACC should merge with the Pac-12, which now has 10 teams,” Skipper said on The Dan LeBatard Show. “I would take eight of those teams, change my footprint, have a 24 team conference with a western division and their ACC Network footprint would expand to the west coast. You would probably force a renegotiation with ESPN for a new deal and you can solve both problems. The ACC would get more money, expand its footprint, can compete with the SEC and the Big Ten.”

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I think about the effect on the student athlete, travel time, etc.

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Who cares about the students really. When I played college baseball as long as I made grades going to class didn’t matter.

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I care about the students really.

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If there were 8 teams in the western division- perhaps travel to the east coast could be a few times per year.

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For football. But all the other sports? Ones with more games per season? Maybe they just stay west mostly and set up tournaments for ‘cross-division’ play.

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If there were 8 teams in a western wing of the PACC, that could work reasonably well.

One - maybe two - long road trips a year is better than the 4 or 5 the LA schools are staring at. This idea is inching up to the top of my faves.

(If we end up in Big-12, we’ll make that work, too. Utah football will land in a decent position + I’m bullish on our long term forecast.)

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Reports seem to indicate that a full merge is not additive (ESPN won’t give ACC teams more money by adding the Pac.)

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The ACC media rights deal goes through 2036. There’s no way ESPN agrees to blow open the doors on expanding the list of schools… nor would all PAC schools automatically want to commit that far out.

That said, if a scheduling agreement / merger helps the PAC remain viable and helps visibility in linear sources, why not?

If Clemson & Florida State were to leave the ACC to a growing SEC, and the B1G likewise looks to incrementally bump up, the PACC & B12 would be in a race to determine who super conference #3 is.

With enough western teams, that’s a no-brainer decision, IMO.

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I’ve been waiting for this to emerge. Eventually somebody with serious money decides to crash all the parties. A $ Billion is not much money, to a growing number of seriously wealthy folks.

“Take $1 billion and roll up all the best teams into a new conference,” said Crakes, who spent a quarter century as an executive at Fox Sports. “The best ones you can find who will go. Four or five from the Pac-12. Four or five Big 12 schools. Four or five from the ACC. Maybe there’s a Big Ten or two that comes. You’ve got a conference.”

Third-party influence may soon shake foundation of college football impacting conferences, programs - CBSSports.com

@NewbombTurk has the right mentality. Enjoy today, enjoy this season. By all means, soak up the rest of the summer.

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