The ACC has been locked in as one of college athletics' "power conferences" since it began in 1953. The Tobacco Road-based league is a traditional power in college basketball, while flaunting some of the most dominant programs in college football history. And yet, as other, more monied leagues continue to expand and further dominate the landscape, the ACC continues to morph.
The league began focused primarily on Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas. Now, it spans both coasts with an outpost in Texas and is under constant threat to lose some of its biggest members. Fourteen years ago, the ACC was the catalyst for the breakup of another football power conference: the Big East. Now, it must duck and weave to avoid the same fate at the hands of the Big Ten and SEC.
