Things have not been easy for the ACC for a while. A lawsuit has already landed them in choppy waters, revealing the supposed upper-hand the conference has over its schools. The 14-month litigation has come to a close, but an added threat of their top college programs contemplating leaving is what makes the situation more dicey. But what would others do if that actually became a reality? Well, a college football insider had some interesting revelations to make. But before we get to that…

On March 3, Florida State and Clemson finally saw the end to what was a financial conundrum pulling them down. The main argument was about the ACC reportedly having ownership over the millions of dollars in future TV rights—a deal set to end in 2036—if a school left the conference. Adding to that, the two schools also disagreed with the “unconscionable” amount of fee required to leave the ACC—$165 million currently. Despite the settlement agreement is set to fall around $75 million in 2030-31, and the TV rights now belonging to departing schools, unpredictability still lurks heavy. Why?

Notably, Florida State and Clemson have been rumored to exit ever since the Pac-12 shut their doors in July last year in “whether it’s two years, three years, five years”—a rumor intensified by the legal dispute. And with the exit fee now seeing a downward trend, who’s to stop that from becoming reality. Well, does that happen, the Louisville Cardinals will have an interesting situation to handle, which the college football insider Jeremy Wahmar further discussed…

On the College Football Addiction podcast on March 10, the host threw a hypothetical question at his guest, “If those big four were to not be in the ACC anymore…Louisville would be kind of an interesting case study…because I think Louisville is wanted. I think Louisville is a brand that’s wanted. Now is that wanted by the SEC or the Big 10 immediately, I don’t know. I don’t have an answer to that…but I do think that they would be wanted in the ACC to be kind of one of the top dogs in this conference. And I think they’d be wanted by the Big 12, too.”

“What would Louisville do there?…Would they rather just stay and kind of be the top dogs in a conference that they’ve been in for a while? Would the…worry about the instability of not having Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina? Would they look to go to the Big 12? Again, speculative. I know you’re not..”

To this, the insider expressed full faith in their Director of Athletics, Josh Heird. After all, Louisville’s journey hasn’t been a straight line to the ACC. They’ve navigated the Metro Conference, then Conference USA, before landing in the Big East, and briefly, the American. As Wahman noted, “We went to the Big East, and we went to the American first season. Thank goodness that was only a one-season deal. And then we got to the ACC. So our leadership has shown constantly that they’re going to put us in the best position to succeed.” So, the question remains: if they were to leave the ACC, where would they prefer to land?

According to Wahman, even if the Cardinals want to join hands with the SEC, it’s not going to be an easy task. “I’m not going to sit here and give a lock or anything because I don’t know. But I would assume that if we were to leave…I know the SEC…Kentucky will not let us in SEC. They’ve got vetoing rights…So that’s probably a wrap there. The Big 10, maybe. But, I don’t know. I think it’s probably Big 12 if anywhere, or stay in the ACC because I can see benefits of staying in a conference where maybe the two top football teams left, but all the other top teams and all the other sports are still here,” Wahman concluded.

Well, looks like the Cardinals are locked in for the near future. However, that didn’t stop another insider from speculating that the college football still has a countdown set for their exit…

The Louisville Cardinals have the ultimate weapon 

Back in 2023, in May, 247 Sports’ Jason Scheer, saw this coming. He had predicted back then that Florida State and Clemson are “likely to join the conference within the next year or so.” On that note, Scheer, in an interview with 93.9 The Ville, stated that Louisville and Miami are the “next two up” behind FSU and Clemson, who are likely to hit the ‘SWAP’ button to Big 12. However, unless and until we get a proper confirmation of the Louisville and ACC divorce, let’s just focus on the present.

Now that the legal issue has subsided, the Cardinals are the primary force driving talks. They are likely to make the most out of the ESPN deal. Yes, U of L football sputtered through Bobby Petrino’s last year and Scott Satterfield’s tenure. However, Brohm has the program on the right course. In his debut year, the HC led Louisville to their first ACC Championship game. Similarly, in his second year, the HC showed how his boys are not far off from being in the Natty. 

After all, they defeated Clemson and lost by a touchdown to both Notre Dame and SMU. So, it’s likely they are reigning in terms of views. The Cardinals had a game in each of Brohm’s two seasons that surpassed the coveted 4 million viewers threshold. One was their win against Marcus Freeman’s boys, which bagged 5.12 million views in 2023. The other was against the Hurricanes; they brought in 4.07 million views in 2024. That’s how Louisville can make the most of the ESPN deal before making the final call and squeezing in some more money from the ACC. 

Highly unlikely that we’ll see them leaving. However, time will tell…