ESPN’s Jay Bilas Has A Big Suggestion For The ACC
With the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, it’s only a matter of time before the Big 12 are no more. With his former conference in a position to grab up some of the Big 12 schools, ESPN’s Jay Bilas has a suggestion for what the ACC should do next.
Appearing on SportsCenter today, Bilas suggested that the ACC contact the SEC and propose a merger of their conferences. He pointed out that the natural (geographic) rivalries that the two conference have would be great for allowing them to grow even bigger.
“If I were commissioner of the ACC, the one thing I would be thinking about is approaching the SEC and saying ‘look at all of the natural rivalries we have in our conference.’ Why don’t we start thinking about a merger?” Bilas said. “That’s what the SEC is gonna become. It’s gonna be a junior NFL and a junior NBA. And there’s no reason the ACC shouldn’t jump in there and take advantage of those natural rivalries and markets…”
As with many of Bilas’ hot takes, the reactions to his suggestion have been very mixed. In the comments section of his post on the subject, many doubt that the SEC would want to add any teams other than the absolute juggernauts of their respective sports – Clemson and FSU for football, Duke, UNC and Virginia for basketball, etc.
“The SEC would want maybe 6 of the 14 ACC teams…” one fan wrote. “Clemson, FSU, Miami… and maybe UNC, NC ST & VT. That’s not a good enough reason to merge, the SEC teams would make more by Not splitting the pot with the other 11 or 8 ACC teams they don’t want lol.”
“They wish. SEC would take Clemson and Florida St and walk away from the others,” replied another.
“Yeah SEC is lining up to add Wake Forest and Boston college… lmao,” another fan wrote.
It’s an interesting topic to explore and one that might be on the table in the future. The very distant future.
What do you make of Jay Bilas’ suggestion?
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