The End of the ACC: Why Clemson and Florida State Are Leaving 

Numbers don’t lie! Nicely done! Go NOLES! FYI, FSU has ALWAYS been in the top 15 most viewed teams nationally, going back to the 1980’s. That’s a FACT!

Two top 10 teams FSU vs Duke in baseball played last night and the ACC network had women’s lacrosse. You can see why the ACC is ridiculous.

Per the general consensus that I've read, FSU was snubbed by the CFP to prevent the SEC for having no representation. Explained elsewhere, but one can see how LSU's rank last season and the prior to see how SEC bias can be additionally proven.

Awesome information !!!

Good information!

Great work!

June 30th is a HUGE date to watch.

The move for all teams is based on how ESPN and Fox wants to negotiate TV deals moving forward. Those schools could leave but they must have a place to go. 😒

EAST: Syracuse, Boston College, UConn, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, USF. WEST: Tulane, SMU, SDSU, Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State.

Dustin, congratulations to you on another excellent video. Once again, your research was very thorough and spot-on, and I applaud you for your love and passion of college football. I gotta ask you, though: What are your thoughts on a College Football Super League? I know you’ve done videos about how you would do conference realignment in the past, which by the way, were excellent. But do you think we’ll have a Super League someday? Let me know what you think about this. And keep up the great work!

The BIG12 is the benchmark for a former peer major conference that has fully depleted/backfilled. Absent evidence otherwise, the ACC should end the same.

As a Clemson fan, I'm ready to see us play some new teams. Been a fan for over 40 years and watching them play the same core. Mostly !

The question I have now is if Clemson and FSU leaves, which other teams leave or get kicked out of the conferences? You gotta think teams like North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Miami would want to leave the ACC when the floodgates open but when is enough teams enough?

The Pac-12 schools transition go into affect on August 2nd because for some reason their TV deal and grant of rights expires on that date.

FSU DID NOT state an intent to leave. They literally said they have to have the BoT vote on that to Judge Cooper in Leon County

Cant wait to see all southern big boys in the same conference

my only hope for college football not deteriorating into unwatchbility is all the P5 schools canibalizing each other so bad the whole ncaa self destructs and we get regional conferences focused on rivalries and drive-to games back. as a Delaware fan, I'm glad we got in when we did but I'd love to be in a conference with JMU UConn Temple Navy etc and the demise of the ACC might shake up how conferences look on the east coast in a big way that trickles down. Or not and it just keeps getting worse and more unrecognizable

What are your sources. FSU already meeting in Chicago which is the BIG 10 conference headquarters with people that matters. Please do a little more homework they’re BIG 10 bound.

You did a great job as always. I have been trying to tell Big12 people that they are not as good nor as bad as people think or they think themselves. Bear in mind that the Big12 numbers over past 10 years of 32 games at 5 million viewers or more primarily includes Oklahoma and Texas. And though not as bad a situation and scenario as ACC if they lose Florida State and Clemson; it’s not exactly vastly better and thus no schools go to Big12 until 30/31. I don’t disagree with that the ACC would be hurt with the departures. But contrary to Big12 and others with doom and gloom and hypocrisy, the ACC would still be a Power/Autonomous Conference and will backfill appropriately and probably get the current media deal they have extended and then justified to be that under ESPN and any other network, as opposed to what is going on now. But I think in the future the ACC could lose both UNC and NCST and maybe both Virginia schools to the SEC. If that happens, then they would be in serious trouble unless they really add true contenders in football and other sports; with their academic standards and requirements they are limited to who they can add. The three service academies for all sports are a no-brainer along with WazzU and OzzU and San Diego State and Tulane and USF. After that it gets tricky. Believe it or not UCONN, Buffalo, Toledo, Ohio, Miami-Ohio, Marshall, ODU, App State, CCU, UAB, Memphis, UNT, UTSA, Troy, Southern Miss, FAU, South Alabama, Liberty, ULL, UTEP, Texas State, Wyoming, Colorado State, Utah State, Nevada, UNLV, and Hawaii are all Tier 1, Carnegie 1, R1 schools. I might be leaving out a few. But from those schools, who are successful at all sports and especially football; and, who are closely associated with high academic standards and success that the ACC and new members would appreciate and approve for? And who networks respect and honor and give decent revenue streams for financial support and gain? Those are the schools that the ACC will add to keep their conference and status. They will be in 4th place among A4/P4 but better than G5/6/7/or whatever they become.

I hate that you ignored Big 12 expansion thereby giving a complete overview of the landscape but still a decent video,

All East Coast and mid-area teams have the advantage of television time slots to allow viewing of the major game, in a more convenient time slot, allowing personnel to make the direction of college sports. On the flip side for teams on the West Coast television viewing in a limited time slot for viewing in other parts of the country. All persons making decisions for college sports, directly ESPN has by dispersion of revenue, has caused directly the final decisions of items on the West Coast. The leadership in past years was blind to any movements and the effects that should have been discussed without having a big head of stupidity. The Pac12 current leadership is hopefully trying to change any direction they might be going to try. The opening of the transfer portal for sports, students in the transfer portal is in some respect the same as COVID had through all aspects of life in the USA.

Go Noles! 🎉

14:13 The trade secrets are in the Media Agreement - not the Grant of Rights.

MONEY !!!! greed has destroyed college football like everything else

Sometimes, institutions are born full of BS. Dixie Conference (1948) Formation of purely amateur conference In 1948, the administration of Florida State University, which had returned to coeducation in 1947 after more than 40 years as a women's college, wrote leaders at other southern institutions seeking to create a "purely amateur" athletic conference. The NCAA had recently tightened its rules on the amount of money that could be paid to collegiate athletes, which caused difficulty for many established athletic programs. Florida State hoped to create a new conference based on the principle of complete amateurism, including no athletic scholarships.

I actually think FSU and Clemson will stay, why? Because of Notre Dame, you know that Notre Dame is an opportunist above all else and I have a feeling they will find a way to keep them around and bring in more teams that the ACC wants.

College Football Traditionalists want to go back to the 90's conference structures because the sport was more regionally balanced. Unfortunately that's not realistic because the Clinton Administration signed NAFTA into effect, which destroyed the Rust Belt by selling the manufacturing center of the country out to China. So by the mid 2000's the SEC became the most dominant conference because of all the blue collar families relocating to the South looking for stable work. The B1G was forced to expand their footprint into other regions of the country for the recruiting benefits to remain relevant and competitive. That's why teams like Ohio State had to pivot to recruit nationally, due to population loss, instead of getting 3/4ths of their roster from Ohio, like they historically have done.

They'll just refill with uconn and some aac schools.

Zero ACC games (not featuring FSU or Clemson) reached 5M views. Numbers don’t lie, ACC! Why we are leaving. Cya. Go Noles!

Exit fee isn’t the issue,totally media rights

Convenient fact giving! Maybe because Clemson and FSU are playing more in prime time affects the amount of viewers! VT had one and it was third on your list. If VT or UNC or NC St. was in prime time more, than the viewers list would be different. Also convenient is how you only go back to 2014! why don’t you go back to 2005 when the ACC expanded?! oh that’s right because that’s when Clemson got good!

I will happily take a bet the other side of the bet that FSU and Clemson will be playing in 2025. Name the amount that you would like to bet.

Louisville TAMU, Music City Bowl, Dec 30, 2015, 5.4M viewers LSU Louisville, Citrus Bowl, Dec 31, 2016, 6.4M viewers I think you left out bowl games from this analysis. I'm going back and you also left out ACC championship games. Furthermore, I haven't seen any mention of ACC games that could have been rounded up to 5M views, or what was the highest viewership in an ACC game over these ten years that didn't involved FSU or Clemson. There is a lot needed to improve this analysis. Also, Notre Dame has full voting rights in the ACC. They have to be considered members for the purpose of this analysis. They just get to keep their football money. At that point you consider Notre Dame and Miami, and then there's only 7 of these games that don't include those teams, plus whatever bowl games you missed like Louisville TAMU in 2015.

I do get the perspective on TV ratings. You should keep an eye on UNC the silent 3rd voice in all of this. New TV market for the SEC, national brand, and one of the hearts of the ACC. The SEC wants UNC badly, probably more than any other school in the ACC right now. UNC is watching and waiting to see what settlements are reached. FSU/Clemson/UNC are losses that will relegate the ACC to a minimal power. I agree with the points on Clemson and FSU, but I thinks it too narrow.

ACC WILL NOT BE A POWER CONFERENCE if Clemson & FSU are able to leave. ACC will be group of 6 . The Big 12 doesn’t want any teams

I really turned a deaf ear when you said the GOR was "sealed" It is not and if Clemson and FSU don't have their own copies of the agreements they signed, it is on them. So stop trying to make some binding tie between the GOR which is between the conference and the individual teams and the media deal which the GOR empowered the conference to act on their behalf.

We tend to conflate national title numbers with being best overall in strength. Unfortunately the B1G in a 10 year stretch over the last 11 years had the BEST P5 conference vs P5 conference win percentage. The B1G in that period also had the BEST bowl record that also happened to be against the toughest competition.

super skeptical that we have an announcement/settlement this summer/fall the acc is going to cling on for dear life until their fingers go numb and they plummet to their death. and FSU will laugh as they watch. the acc isn't going to want to make a deal. even if/when they lose the lawsuit, it may be better for them than settling. the acc is going to die either way, so may as well "cling, baby, cling"

Honestly? The ACC got a binding scheduling agreement and "must join" agreement with ND as part of allowing ND to join outside of football.

You MISSED the June 30th Deadline for the current 50% of the ACC membership to be able to dissolve the conference....On July 1st....that number goes from 8 to 10 members to dissolve when Stanford, Cal and SMU become full/voting members.

You don’t know what it did for the acc??? How? Money. I brought the acc money.

a) UNC/DUKE voted against the MIAMI/VATECH addition, but UNC did vote for the FSU invite. Your claimed reasons are suspect. DUKE may have feared an emphasis on football and/or a loss of influence, but UNC likely didn't approve of MIAMI demanding CUSE/PITT and/or the Virgina Governor's interference. b) I suspect that the BC through L'VILLE unanimous invites were due to the damage already then done and necessity.

FSU brings in a lot of money and viewers to the acc. I believe they carried the acc for many decades from 1992-2014. For the acc to be very weak on the CFP last season was the last straw. It’s time to leave the acc period and sue them for failure of fiduciary responsibilities to all member schools. The acc is a 💩 conference. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Careful what they wish for....

Thanks for wasting 30 minutes of my life on a pointless video

Yawn FSU and Clemson aren't leaving for any less than the full GOR and Exit Fee. FSU just had its claims dismissed and sent to mediation. Neither can afford the to leave til 2030.