Idea: The ACC should expand to 18 schools (Maryland, Notre Dame full-time, Penn State, West Virginia).
Rationale: The ACC’s exclusive rights holder is ABC/ESPN. Their biggest competition is FOX, which holds the rights to the Big Ten, making them ESPN’s (and the ACC/SEC’s) biggest competition in terms of conferences.
If ESPN wants to fully control the future of college football and collegiate athletics, it should “invest” in the ACC by re-opening the conference’s television/streaming contract and offer enough money to both pass by the Big Ten and what Notre Dame is getting through NBC and the ACC. This could entice Maryland, Notre Dame, and Penn State to join the ACC while dealing the Big Ten (and FOX) a blow. West Virginia could also be added to get to 18 schools since they have a solid following, which means something in the age of subscriptions despite not bringing a major TV market with them.
This is why I’m also thinking the SEC won’t go after any ACC schools, or vice-versa. ESPN would essentially be creating a bidding war against itself since it holds the rights to both. At the same time, this could motivate them to not allow the Big Ten to steal any ACC or SEC schools, since they’d be losing money to their biggest competitor.
Am I crazy? Tell me why this wouldn’t work…