[jacket3ree]

I've stopped worrying about a conference wish list, although a robust Mountain Pacific conference seems best to me. Lock up everything west of the Hundredth Meridian except, well the "Big" guys (bummer), but play them OOC and pretend to be Boise State or Fresno State when you do.  It's not the end of the world not to be number one, but have more fun.

That said, I would be of course hugely biased toward some sort of alliance/merger with the ACC.  That only really works, however, if it is football only like Notre Dame so that teams with lots of road contests are not perpetually jetlagged. Really bad for health.

Our Pitt friend lays things out really well.  UNC runs the ACC. Always has; always will. The thought of them bolting to be small fry elsewhere makes zero sense. Frankly you could replace Louisville, Miami, and Florida State with Stanford (football), Cal (football), and Notre Dame (permanently in football) and that would be a great straight-up trade.

If anyone wants to do some pro bono sleuthing on how iron clad the GOR may or may not be, so I can report it as my own work on an ACC site that is probably buzzing (get it) about this possibility, have at it (only 16 pages): Old Ironclad Florida State's lawyers can supposedly drive a pair of free shoes through it, FWIW. The TLDR version is that any future members are also bound by the agreement. So unless there is an implosion now with the 7 rumored to really want out of the GOR, this would not be a decision to make lightly. GOR lasts until 2036.

[jacket3ree]

I've stopped worrying about a conference wish list, although a robust Mountain Pacific conference seems best to me. Lock up everything west of the Hundredth Meridian except, well the "Big" guys (bummer), but play them OOC and pretend to be Boise State or Fresno State when you do.  It's not the end of the world not to be number one, but have more fun.

That said, I would be of course hugely biased toward some sort of alliance/merger with the ACC.  That only really works, however, if it is football only like Notre Dame so that teams with lots of road contests are not perpetually jetlagged. Really bad for health.

Our Pitt friend lays things out really well.  UNC runs the ACC. Always has; always will. The thought of them bolting to be small fry elsewhere makes zero sense. Frankly you could replace Louisville, Miami, and Florida State with Stanford (football), Cal (football), and Notre Dame (permanently in football) and that would be a great straight-up trade.

If anyone wants to do some pro bono sleuthing on how iron clad the GOR may or may not be, so I can report it as my own work on an ACC site that is probably buzzing (get it) about this possibility, have at it (only 16 pages): Old Ironclad Florida State's lawyers can supposedly drive a pair of free shoes through it, FWIW. The TLDR version is that any future members are also bound by the agreement. So unless there is an implosion now with the 7 rumored to really want out of the GOR, this would not be a decision to make lightly. GOR lasts until 2036.