The Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi believes financial sacrifices from Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Duke, UVA, and NC State will be necessary to keep FSU, Clemson, and UNC happy and keep the ACC alive; adding that Miami and Louisville may be in the latter group as well.
"What exactly does (reconstruction of the ACC mean? Here’s what I think it means: It means that many of the ACC’s lesser football brands — see Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Duke, Virginia and N.C. State — are going to have to swallow their pride and take less money so that FSU, Clemson, UNC and perhaps Miami and Louisville can make more," Bianchi wrote.
Is that enough to placate FSU, Clemson, and UNC at this point? FSU's AD has gone on record and claimed that the Noles want to be in the top level of college football, which the ACC no longer qualifies as given their undefeated champion didn't make the College Football Playoff field in 2023. FSU and Clemson have already engaged the conference in court, and typically when that happens, there's no going back. UNC and UVA are rumored to want to join the fray at some point too.
Many historic brands won't want to give up revenue to placate the ACC's top teams
Why would UVA and VA Tech want to give up money just to keep a sinking ship conference alive when there is a potential Big Ten invite for the Cavaliers and an SEC invite for the Hokies waiting for them? In that vein, why would Duke, one of the most legendary basketball schools in NCAA history, admit to being lesser than UNC?
What's being asked of the lower schools in the ACC is not reasonable and isn't going to work for most, if not all, of the schools in the "has to sacrifice" pool.
FSU and Clemson, and probably UNC, are goners. Nothing will save the ACC from the demise it earned itself through years of being out-negotiated by the SEC and Big Ten.