RALEIGH, N.C. — When Oklahoma and Texas announced their intention to jump to the SEC last summer, it felt like distant thunder on the horizon in ACC country. Concerning, maybe even menacing, but not imminently threatening.
But when the Big Ten poached UCLA and Southern Cal from the Pac-12 last week, the call was coming from inside the house. Not only because it made a final mockery of the eminently mockable Alliance between the ACC and Big Ten and Pac-12, but because if the Big 12 had been ripe to fall, the Pac-12 and ACC were supposed to be equally secure.
Now all bets are off. The ACC as we know it is under deep existential threat from not only the Big Ten and SEC, but from its partner in its namesake network. In a world where Fox and ESPN, the unseen forces driving conference realignment at any cost, have already picked the two winners of how this is all going to turn out, the ACC isn’t one of them.
