Some talk online about Utah considering a move to ACC

[MDUte]

Speculation is circulating about potential shifts in college sports conferences. There is discussion about Utah possibly moving to the ACC despite its recent move to the Big 12, with some suggesting the ACC might be a better fit due to its ESPN network agreement and potential for…

— Dick Weiss (@HoopsWeiss) May 26, 2024

[MDUte]

Discussion about Utah potentially moving to the ACC

[MDUte]

Based on this, my guess is when FSU and Clemson leave the ACC there’s going to be an opportunity for the ACC to try and survive and become the 3rd best power conference over the B12…like what the PAC should’ve done when they had the chance but failed. Either the best remaining ACC schools secure a place in the B12 or the ACC bands together and forms a best of the rest league. If the latter occurs, would Utah rather be associated with the B12 schools or potentially in a new ACC that includes North Carolina, Miami, Stanford, Cal, Virginia, Va Tech, Georgia Tech, NC St, Pitt, Louisville, Utah, and maybe ASU, WSU and OSU???

Edit: forgot about ND who still prefers to maintain independence. A newly reorganized ACC would likely also include a scheduling agreement with ND.

[The Miami Ute]

Here’s my concern…if FSU and Clemson leave the ACC, that’s just the first day, because you can certainly bet that schools like UNC and Virginia won’t be far behind. My guess is that, if FSU and Clemson leave the ACC, all that does is set the stage for the conference’s eventual implosion. In that scenario, Utah is best served by holding tight as a member of the Big XII instead of trying to prop up a moribund conference. I also think that the Big XII wouldn’t sit tight and would try to poach the ACC’s most marketable remaining assets.

[AlohaUte]

Yep, UVA and UNC are 100% gone when it falls apart. The B1G or SEC would love to have both.

[MDUte]

I’m not so sure. I know the B1G Presidents would love to have UVA and UNC and probably the SEC as well, but I don’t know if the TV networks are willing to spend anymore to have them. And if not, I don’t think the schools will take less $$ to bring them in. I get that they could come in on reduced shares like Oregon/Washington did but it would still depend on the networks determining what they’re worth and paying that amount.

[AlohaUte]

Maybe you are right about UVA, but I’m confident UNC is in super high demand.

[MDUte]

No question UNC is much higher on the list than UVA.

[MDUte]

Agreed. Things could definitely get interesting….or not at all.

[Central Coast Ute]

With the teams you outlined, I’d say go ACC. you’re back in California, and although you lose Texas, Utah has recruited well in Texas since joining the PAC.

[Yergensen]

You don’t shift deck chairs on the Titanic. Stay in our place, win and hope for a P2 window of opportunity opening up to us.

[UteBacker]

Nailed it, Yergensen!

[Central Coast Ute]

Not sure why they didn’t do this to begin with. Maybe because they wanted to stick with CO, and the AZ schools?

[DrJazzy]

B12 would be a much better league than ACC. Stay where we are at – win, and everything will be taken care of.

Going coast to coast for games in ACC would be a nightmare.

Not sure why some of our fans are so anti-B12 – currently living in DFW and B12 fans are so passionate about their sports. We already dealt with fan apathy in the P12 – that was lame.

[Utah]

Uhhhhh. We play UCF in Orlando this fall.

We already go coast to coast.

I’d rather play Miami than UCF.

This is a no brainer. If money is equal, the ACC is better hands down.

The Big 12 sucks my dudes.

[UofU Fanatic]

It would be going to the other side of the country much more often. Currently I like big 12 and the fan passion etc and ready to see how it goes the next few years

[DrJazzy]

1-2 games (UCF, WVU) vs many. And Miami will be in the B10/SEC. You seriously think a watered down ACC is better than our current situation? Glad you aren’t in charge of Utah athletics.

[The Miami Ute]

I’m a Miami fan and I can tell you that I have little to no hope for Miami joining either the B1G or SEC. Miami is a small private school with an equivalent fan base. Other than the football fame garnered during the 80s-2000s glory years, they really bring nothing to the table. In addition, there’s nothing more that Florida and FSU would like than c**kblocking Miami’s entry into the B1G or SEC so that they, and they alone, would have first dibs on all of the football talent coming out of South Florida.

[MDUte]

One thing I’m hoping for is the SEC taking FSU, North Carolina, Clemson, and either Miami or Kansas. If 4 of those schools all go to the SEC, that’s best case scenario for Utah going to the B1G.

[Utesbyfive]

No thanks.

[D T]

Hard no on that, although having lived in Raleigh years ago, I became a NCSU fan & that’d be cool to play them regularly, but our best option is to remain in the XII till our B1G invite arrives.

[Ute2]

Lacrosse is the motor that drives college sports! To the ACC!

[PhiladelphiaUte]

I would LOVE to see our lacrosse program in the ACC! Not more than the BigTen, but the ACC comes in a very close second!

That said, if we do opt to go to the ACC, it won’t be during the 2024-25 school year, so we don’t have to choose right now. We’ll get to play a season in the Big 12 first, and see how that plays out.

If we DO opt to defect to the ACC, I don’t see them allowing us the “easy out” the Big 12 gave us, so we’ll need to be sure that the door to the BigTen had effectively been closed.

[Hellhound152]

Dude, Provo State has won the internet at this point. People are eating up the lies as truth and the rest of the Big 12 hates Utah. Our own fans have dumped enough fuel on the fire to only bolster the rumors and innuendo. The only hope at this point is for the football team to dump truck the Big12 for the next couple of years and head to the Big 10 or hope that these “simple” Big 12 fans (Sorry, they are) finally figure out the BYU thing because right now, Arizona, ASU, TCU, and Utah are the only ones who know what they are actually dealing with.

[MDUte]

The exact opposite is true. TSPP fans spending all of their time shouting online about how awful Utah fans are and all of the Utah fans pounding their chests online about how Utah is going to run the B12 is putting and keeping the attention and spotlight on Utah.

PR 101, all publicity is good publicity. And having B12 fans hating Utah is great publicity. Couple that with all the national media picking Utah as the team that will win the B12 is great publicity, adding fuel to the fire. Every B12 team has Utah circled on their schedule as their Super Bowl. Things couldn’t be going any better than they are right now.

[Hellhound152]

Results will dictate the outcome I suppose.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Last year, Utah was picked to come in 3rd in the Pac-12. And then Rising and Kuithe couldn’t play, and Rose lacerated a kidney right before the season started, dooming us to our 3rd & 4th string QBs. And then Yassmin got injured. And then Bernard got injured. And so and so forth.

In the end, we didn’t finish as high as 3rd.

What’s to stop that from happening again?

After all that talk of running through the Big 12, if we DON’T win it, we’re going to look really stupid — injuries notwithstanding.

Best we keep our mouths shut until after we win it.

It’s cool to talk amongst ourselves, but there’s no point in gloating at the rest of the league until we’d actually won anything.

[MDUte]

Nothing is to stop that from happening again. Fans have zero control over what happens on the field. If the program wants to be the next Clemson, we have to win. And not the type of winning where we surprise everyone, coming out of nowhere…those days are over. We need to win as the front runner. So if that doesn’t happen this year, then it’s a failed season. And all Utah fans will feel what fans of the other big brands who had the same high expectations but came up short feel. And yes, that will suck if that happens but Utah fans won’t look stupid.

We don’t look stupid for the way last year turned out. If anything, Utah looked amazing last year going 8-4 without our QB1 and the insane amount of injuries we dealt with. No other team would’ve done better with similar circumstances and most would’ve done far worse. But again, fans have no control over what happens on the field. What fans can have an effect on is the amount of attention we are getting. And right now, you don’t see podcasts being devoted to talking about ASU or Arizona. In fact it’s relatively quiet about all the other B12 teams, including the teams that are supposedly contenders like Kansas St. The only B12 team that everyone is wanting to talk about is Utah. That’s a great thing.

With the way our schedule lines up, this Utah team should be able to run through it to the CCG far easier than what we had to do in the P12. And if so, this is going to be the huge brand-building year we desperately want and need. But at the end of the day, I don’t see any downside to all of this attention, good and bad, we are getting. Hopefully the team lives up to the expectations and it’s amazing. If not, sure it will be crushing and maybe some will have their egos bruised…but oh well, life will go on.

[Trailgoat]

Regardless of the content and absurdity, the free national PR for Utah is never a bad thing.

[J Rocksville]

I wish the pac 12 and acc would have formed a coastal super conference with a conference championship game. Would have given lots of TV inventory in lots of time slots to spread between networks and streaming, lots of power schools and household brands in the major sports, and probably a product that could compete with the b1g and sec.

I know it was thrown out there online, but I have no idea if it was actually on the table.

[Utah]

Here is the reality:

We have three levels of college football:

B1G/SEC

Big 12/ACC

Everyone else.

And in 2030, the Big 12/ACC won’t be around…or look drastically different.

Everyone is trying to jockey into the B1G and SEC. Utah has to put themselves in a position to get into the B1G and SEC as best as they can.

The question then becomes, when the B1G and SEC expand again (IF they expand again), who are they going to pick from? The Big 12?

Nah. Who is the most attractive program in the Big 12? Utah? I love my Utes, but come on.

The ACC has Stanford, Cal, FSU, Clemson, etc, etc, etc.

The Big 12 sucks. It is what it is. Any conference where Utah is the premier program ain’t that great of a conference.

You are the company you keep. And the ACC is a much better conference than the Big 12.

Does this mean Utah should go to the ACC? I don’t know. But I do know Utah should be looking into it.

[MDUte]

Statement put out by the U of U Leadership:

Statement from Utah athletics regarding rumors of Utah & ACC:
“We are proud to be entering into membership in the Big 12 Conference in the coming months & excited to join our new colleagues and member institutions. A report over the weekend that suggested otherwise is completely…

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 28, 2024

[Kellso]

The comments had a beginning. I’m guessing somewhere in Provo.

[Central Coast Ute]

Nah. Kansas will go somewhere guaranteed. The Utes have a great shot if the B1G goes to 24. It’s not a guarantee, but if the rumors and the publicity is true, Utah is in a great position to make the P2.