Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger said in an interview with John Kurtz that the ACC schools have been in contact with the Big 12 Conference.
In the interview, Dellenger mentions that Clemson and FSU would likely prefer joining the Big 10 or SEC. However, the SEC already has schools in their states, and the Big 10’s academic priority poses a challenge for both schools.
The second option for the two schools is to attempt to re-form the ACC to split the television revenue with less teams. “The second option would be to reform the ACC with a smaller number of teams where you would have a financial advantage because you wouldn’t split the TV distribution with 18, you would just split it with 10.”
The Big 12 would be the third option. While early conversations have started between the schools and the conference, it’s still months if not years away from happening.
The process is still in its infancy, as Clemson and Florida State are trying to find ways to leave the ACC while they’re still signed to their media rights deal with ESPN. That deal pays out $30 million per school every year until 2036. The Big 12’s media rights deal with FOX paid out $39.8 million to 10 of it’s schools in 2024, including Oklahoma and Texas before they officially joined the SEC. Both of these figures are $10-20 million less than what the Big 10 and SEC pay out to their schools annually.
Getting the two football blue bloods would take a monumental offer, which would likely mean that the Big 12 would have to use private equity and likely pay Clemson and Florida State more than other Big 12 schools.
Dellenger continued, “Would they be okay with paying Florida State and Clemson $10-$20M more a year, and that’s a question I don’t know the answer to, except to say that would probably be hard to convince them to do that. But, if it means adding blue blood football powers that you need, maybe there’s a shot.”
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark made some remarks that seemed to dig at the ACC during his time at Big 12 Media Days, saying “we’ve solidified ourselves as one of the top three conferences in America,” and that the Big 12 is “more relevant now than ever before”.
“I will not stop until we are the No. 1 conference in America,” Yormark stated.
