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https://247sports.com/college/north-carolina/article/acc-kickoff-commissioners-tone-masks-uncs-clearer-exit-path-251928541/

ACC Kickoff: Commissioner’s Tone Masks UNC’s Clearer Exit Path
As currently constructed, the league’s days appear numbered. And sources confirm the Tar Heels are highly interested in making a move.
Adam Smith

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — ACC commissioner Jim Phillips spoke from the stage for more than 56 minutes on Tuesday at ACC Kickoff, his state-of-the-conference address effectively kicking off the annual preseason football event again, while touching on a range of big-picture issues from NIL and the transfer portal to the debate surrounding the College Football Playoff format.

He also made sure to underline the appearance of a unified front across the enlarged league. Clemson and Florida State no longer are suing the ACC, with those parties about 4½ months removed from settling dueling lawsuits, an agreement that Phillips — perhaps predictably painting the terms as a compromise rather than a concession — emphasized will continue to fortify the conference in the future.

"I knew what the Clemson and Florida State people were saying because they communicated it to the entire group about their desire to be in the ACC," Phillips said Tuesday. "And I believe them, I really do. I have a responsibility to make sure that our ACC schools want to be in this league, not just have to be in this league, and I think that's important. … Since we've had that take place in March, I've not felt stronger about this league than I have in the last five months, and I mean that. I'm not just saying that. It's not hyperbole and the rest of that stuff. I really believe it.

‌"When you think about settling those lawsuits and being committed to one another, you talk about viewership and success on how to distribute dollars, you talk about coming back off of the most revenue we've ever distributed, 29 national championships (claimed by ACC teams across the last four years), the sport of football getting better and we want to take another step this year. The league is situated nicely right now."

The increasingly clearer reality, though, is only short-run stability has been assured for the conference, whose borders stretch from coast to coast now. At the lectern adorned with ACC football logos and graphics on Tuesday here at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown, the ground wasn't figuratively shaking beneath the commissioner's feet. But with the legal settlement significantly decreasing the league's exit fees by tens of millions and its once-ironclad grant of rights media deal dissolved, there's security from the tremors of realignment only for the time being.

‌As currently constructed, the ACC's days could be numbered, with the Clemson and Florida State settlement agreement providing a substantial victory to member schools for exploring possible pathways toward leaving the conference and relocating to greener financial pastures. And any such group interested in seeking a potential departure from the ACC includes North Carolina, multiple sources told Inside Carolina. The Tar Heels even could be considered at the front of that pack, alongside Clemson, sources said about the next round of realignment that's brewing.

The ACC's current 18-team membership — 17 teams in football, minus Notre Dame — will remain intact through at least June 2027, as per the settlement's new parameters on leaving the league. Now, official notices must be filed by June 1 for withdrawal to become effective on June 30 of the following year. So if an ACC school files for withdrawal on June 1, 2026, then it would be required to pay an exit fee of $147 million to leave the conference on June 30, 2027. From there, the ACC's exit fees drop by $18 million each year, until leveling off at $75 million in 2030-31. The league's exit costs remain considerable, but they're not prohibitive.

‌Around UNC, these already are changing times at the top. Lee Roberts is approaching the one-year anniversary of his appointment as school chancellor, after seven months in an interim capacity. Steve Newmark is coming on board Aug. 15 as executive associate athletic director, before officially succeeding Bubba Cunningham next summer. Cunningham has served as UNC athletics director since 2011. Newmark, the outgoing president of Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing in NASCAR, will prioritize revenue-driving and fundraising efforts with the Tar Heels during the transition to take over for Cunningham.

In football, UNC is betting on new coach Bill Belichick. The Tar Heels landed the NFL legend with a five-year contract worth $50 million that puts him among the highest-paid coaches on the college level, and have created a front-office staff for managing their roster. "We're taking a risk," Cunningham told IC and a handful of reporters upon Belichick's hiring. "We're investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is going to significantly outweigh the investment."

Meanwhile, as the Big Ten and SEC have expanded to grow more powerful — the Big Ten gobbling up Oregon, Southern Cal, UCLA and Washington, and the SEC poaching Texas and Oklahoma — former Carolina football coach Mack Brown used to quip privately about the fractured viewpoints surrounding a possible conference realignment maneuver in play for the Tar Heels. The academics among UNC's faculty preferred joining the Big Ten, Brown remarked to sources on occasion, while the UNC fan base wanted a jump to the SEC.

But make no mistake, now, multiple sources told IC, the SEC is where the Tar Heels are aiming under the leadership of Roberts and Newmark, should UNC move to leave the ACC for another league, perhaps in the near future. Sources said the 2030-31 school year, when the ACC's decreasing exit fees dip from $93 million to the flat $75 million threshold, would figure to become an important final line of demarcation, if the Tar Heels haven't made their departure sooner. Seven decades ago, UNC was one of the original member schools in the 1953 founding of the ACC.

Quietly, Roberts, the UNC chancellor who spent 30 years working in finance, got involved behind the scenes and performed a key role in helping finalize the ACC's settlement agreement with Clemson and Florida State, sources told IC.

Roberts has chaired the budget committee on the UNC System Board of Governors, among a number of accomplished jobs, and also served as the budget director for North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, when his office oversaw more than $40 billion in spending.

Posted
On 7/1/2025 at 5:15 PM, 'stache said:

They lost that status last season when they only had 2 members and I don't think they'll get it back based on the new additions. So as it sits they are not part of the autonomous (i.e. power) conferences and I doubt they would even try to regain that status.

Officially, they are still in the group.  They drop out when the CFP contract renews in 2026.  They still have veto power over changes.

Posted
5 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

UNC to the SEC confirmed

/jk

Well its their equivalent of Chip, but its more than we've heard before out of Carolina.

Posted
25 minutes ago, bullet said:

Well its their equivalent of Chip, but its more than we've heard before out of Carolina.

It is, UNC is likely the only school outside a handful in the Big Ten that the SEC would expand for.

Posted

the imma-stickied post at the top of this thread is 3 years old (end of june 22)

that post lists a draft of the 32 teams that will make the cut

the acc buyouts are now doable and their grant of rights are dead

the end game is upon us

here's the draft list of 32 from 3 years ago:

Ohio State

Texas

Notre Dame 

Michigan

Penn State 

Florida

Georgia

Alabama

Wisconsin

Oklahoma

USC

LSU

Oregon

Tennessee

TAMU

Florida State

Auburn

Michigan State

Miami

North Carolina

South Carolina

Missouri

Nebraska

Washington

Iowa

UCLA

Clemson

Virginia Tech

Arkansas

Ole Miss

Kentucky

Arizona State

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