Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti applauded the legwork his conference accomplished in welcoming Oregon, USC, Washington and UCLA to the expanded league on Tuesday, but stopped short of saying he was looking at further expansion. Taking a page from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s remarks about further realignment from last week’s media days in Texas, Petitti backed his current members in Indianapolis.
“We’re focused on the 18 [schools] right now. That’s what we’re focused on,” Petitti said at Big Ten Media Days. “We had to do a lot of work. A lot of work had been done to integrate USC, UCLA. We started that work over immediately when we added Oregon and Washington. So I think we’re really comfortable where we are. We’ve got to get this conference right, and that’s what our focus is.”
The Big Ten started its seven-year, $7 billion-dollar media rights contract last football season with games airing on CBS, FOX and NBC. The one university that is constantly rumored to be in the league’s crosshairs continues to be Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish are locked in a TV deal through 2029.
“The ACC was always (former Notre Dame athletic director Jack) Swarbrick’s first choice because of the major markets along the East Coast,” Irish Illustrated’s Tim Prister said Monday in an interview with 247Sports. “Without that as an option, the Big Ten certainly would make the most sense and probably the only viable option.”
As the future of the ACC hangs in the balance following lawsuits from Florida State and Clemson, the SEC and Big Ten reportedly have no interest in either program. The ongoing legal battles within the ACC has cast a dark shadow over the future of the league this summer and conference commissioner Jim Phillips took a hard stance this week against what’s unfolding with the Seminoles and Tigers in court.
“We will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes,” Phillips said Monday at ACC Media Days. “We are confident in this league and that it will remain a premier conference in college athletics. These disputes continue to be damaging and disruptive to the league.”
Florida State and Clemson leaving the ACC may be inevitable, but when it happens — and where the Seminoles and Tigers land — is unknown. As college football realignment buzz heats up, there are no expectations that Florida State and Clemson will notify the league about intentions to leave prior to the Aug. 15 deadline, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports.
Florida State wants a bigger piece of ACC revenue share and the league office wants no part of it, pointing to the conference’s Grant of Rights contract through 2036. At Clemson, the Tigers are seeking “declaration of its rights” about the “unenforceability of the exorbitant withdrawal penalty” as well as the “nonexistence of fiduciary duties” that the ACC would claim the school owes the conference by filing its lawsuit.
With recent reports of the SEC and Big Ten not being interested in adding the Seminoles, a potential move to the Big 12 surfaced this month, though new intel suggests the buzz is simply that of speculation.
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Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said last week there’s no “time to press pause” on conference expansion and is “still open for business” as the next phase of college football realignment could include the Seminoles and Clemson, should those two schools successfully find a way out of the ACC.