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Florida State & Clemson Settling with ACC: How Much $ and How Much Longer Can ACC Survive?

Florida State and Clemson are reportedly settling its lawsuits with the ACC. Evidently, the case has reached the point where every party believes it is better to move on.

Was it the various success/brand initiatives the ACC has introduced? Was it the multiple playoff spots that are guaranteed for the ACC under an even further expanded CFP? Was it that the billable hours for the big law attorneys was getting out of hand for everyone? Likely a combination of all of the above and more, only a select few will ever really know.

Sources have shared with On3 that part of the settlement is a reduced exit fee. Specifically, a school can pay about $200M to leave the ACC once the settlement goes through. And that figure falls to “well below” $100M if a school is looking to leave the ACC after the 2029-30 school year.

Conveniently enough, 2029-30 is when the Big Ten’s current media rights deal expires.

Clemson and FSU might have been the ones to file the lawsuits, but North Carolina and Miami officials were reportedly watching these moves closely, as well, as they look to position themselves as favorably as possible in whatever the next iteration of conference realignment looks like.

Two questions that Andy Staples of On3 posits as far as what the future of the ACC looks like:

1. Could the Big Ten make more money per school by expanding beyond 18?

2. Would the SEC consider expansion beyond 16 in order to keep the Big Ten out of its footprint?

If Question 1 is a no, Staples believes the ACC could hold together, because neither school would add schools for the sake of adding them – they’re doing just fine. But if both questions are a yes, that’s likely a wrap for the ACC as we know it.

Greg Sankey on CFP Changes

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was on The Paul Finebaum Show yesterday to discuss the College Football Playoff and what he is advocating for.

Unsurprisingly, Sankey is advocating for as many SEC teams as possible, and for those spots to be automatic qualifiers (though, he doesn’t use that term):

“I have repeatedly said, that the top ‘fill in the blank’ teams are my personal view and priority. That doesn’t exclude other options, and that’s not what we’ve done in the 12-team playoff. Allocations have been made. Allocations to brings team forward into the top four that then impact the ability of a school to be in the top four, displace them into hosting, or a school that might host, moves into traveling. We saw that last year in our own league. So, I think we need to understand allocations have been made. I am asked within our own league, are there other opportunities for allocations? I haven’t used the word automatic bid, and that’s not actually what we have right now. We have conference champion access for the four most highly rated conference champions. My advocacy was no concessions and no assurances in that process, but to have the opportunity to expand the playoff, that wasn’t going to take place. … I think we should probably slow down a little bit in jumping to conclusions, because there’s a lot of work to do in a short period of time.”

Texas Targeting Former WVU HC Neal Brown for Staff

247Sports’ Matt Zenitz is reporting that former West Virginia head coach Neal Brown is being targeted by Texas to serve a role on Steve Sarkisian’s staff.

Coach Brown was the Head Coach at West Virginia for 6 seasons, where he posted a 37-35 record in his time there. It is unclear this time what his role is going to be, but his history is on the offensive side of the ball. He started as a TEs and assistant OL coach at UMass all the way back in 2003, spending some time for a few years as a WRs Coach at Sacred Heart, Delaware, and Troy, before making the switch to OC/QBs Coach at Troy, Texas Tech, and Kentucky, before becoming the Head Coach of Troy and West Virginia for a decade, combined.

Dabo Swinney: Cancelling Spring Games Won’t Stop Tampering

While many programs are cancelling their spring games, Clemson HC Dabo Swinney has taken a stance that they won’t be cancelling theirs:

“We’re going to have a spring game and I hope we can have some type of fan day with it as well. I don’t know, we’ll see. Listen, whether you have a spring game or not, it’s going to be tampering. Ain’t nobody going to go look at the spring game, and go, “oh yeah, boy,” they got PFF. That’s called PFF, they’ve got everything on everybody already. Cancelling the spring game ain’t going to stop tampering. We’re going to need a lot more help than that to stop tampering. And hopefully at some point, that’ll happen.”

As for the benefit of a spring game, Coach Swinney spoke on the value of live reps, especially for younger guys:

“I just think, again, when you look at, when you evaluate things, … you look at your career snaps, your career offensive, defensive snaps and [the guys who are at the] top of that list for us. You look at those guys that have played a ton of snaps. Do I really to see [them] play live this spring? No. [They] need to get some work, and [they’ll] get a lot of work, but you’ll limit [their] live work. [They] don’t need a lot of live work. But you who know does? All those other dudes.”

SEC Commish Advocates for 9-Game Conference Schedule

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was on The Paul Finebaum Show yesterday, and while on the show, he shared his stance on playing a 9-game conference schedule and the role the CFP plays in that discussion.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that we have to figure out ‘26. Much of the discussion is about should we play eight or nine games. That does transition into an analysis of the College Football Playoff, looking at what happened the first year of a twelve-team playoff. … The decision of our schedule relates to the ‘26 season. So we resolved ‘25. That’s an eight game schedule.”

As for what the plan is moving forward, Sankey shared that there is an importance to weigh the decision-making of the CFP Committee, AD’s interest in qualifying for bowls for the teams where that’s a successful season, and obviously the benefit of playing a ninth conference game:

“When you look at our path forward, you know, we look at the next few months being really important to gather information, talk about other opportunities or obstacles that may be in the way to the extent we can answer that. Like, what the priority of bowl qualification in the future? That’s still an important issue. Trying to understand how the selection committee for the CFP made decisions are really important. One of the issues in the room for athletic directors is, what seemed to matter most is the number to the right – the number of losses. How do we understand what that means for our schedule moving forward?

I’m one who said I really think we ought to be trying to move towards a nine-game conference schedule. I think that can be positive for a lot of reasons. You watch the interest around conference games. But not if that causes us to lose opportunities. I think can name some associations around that, and that’s part of our thinking for our own schedule. That doesn’t necessarily guard (playoff) decision-making, but I do think it’s important to understand how selection decisions are made and we only have one year of that experience as we go to make another decision about our schedule format.”

Kalen DeBoer on Roles for Ryan Grubb and Nick Sheridan in Alabama’s Offense

Last year, Nick Sheridan was the OC for Alabama, but this season, Ryan Grubb is back with Kalen DeBoer as the OC after one season in the pros.

Coach Sheridan will still be on staff, but working more closely with QBs, while Coach Grubb will be focus on every offensive position, including QBs, OL (Coach Grubb’s background), and more.

“Coach will always still be involved with the quarterbacks. I just am a strong believer that your play caller has to be around the quarterbacks. … it allows him to just do what you want a coordinator to do. That’s oversee every position, and he certainly has a lot of history and background with the offensive line. I think there’s, there’s eyes that start in certain spots when you’re a coordinator beyond just the quarterback. And I think, a lot of times, his eyes? He can see it all, he can see them line up on the perimeter but he also really is feeling and seeing and has intuition on what’s going on up front with the offensive line. So you know, that’s really good for he and Coach Kap.”

Mario Cristobal on Early Impressions of QB Carson Beck

Georgia transfer QB Carson Beck is unable to participate in spring practice with Miami, due to the UCL injury he suffered at the end of the first half of the SEC Championship game. However, Coach Mario Cristobal has shared that Beck has still been a force for good in the Hurricanes’ program:

“As positive as you can have without actually having any kind of participate in live drills. The things happened so fast and that one certainly happened a little bit faster and with less familiarity than the previous year, and so all that stuff I would say relationships and leadership, they do take time, but everything from initially has been super positive. We’re really excited to see him healthy and working with our guys at full speed.”

Shane Beamer’s Written Testimony for House Hearing Revealed

South Carolina’s Shane Beamer is set to appear at a House hearing in front of law makers later today.

Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger posted a copy of the written testimony on Twitter. And based on the language, it is nothing short of bold and impassioned: “If you do not act, college sports will be destroyed by never-ending litigation and conflicting state laws. And designating student-athletes as employees is not the right path, because an employment model will drastically reduce the number of sports a school is able to offer. In contrast, a federal law will guarantee the future of Olympic sports that help develop future Olympians. We are at a critical crossroads in college athletics, and quite simply, we need your help. The system is long overdue change; the current situation is unsustainable. A national, bipartisan federal law will provide equal opportunity for all student-athletes to benefit from NIL and create a uniform standard to ensure we’re all playing by the same rules. A college education is invaluable, especially given the reality that less than 2% of college student-athletes advance to professional sports careers. A federal law codifying the settlement will maintain an education-based model for college sports while ensuring the opportunity for student-athletes to earn a degree and the tools necessary to be successful in life after sports.”

Dabo Swinney on Automatic Qualifiers for Big Ten, SEC: Hey Man, Whatever

Earlier this week, Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney had a press conference at the beginning of spring practices.

Someone asked Coach Swinney for his perspective on the proposal that would give the Big en and SEC 4 automatic qualifying spots in a 14-team field where the ACC and Big 12 would get 2 automatic spots.

To which Coach Swinney gave a very straightforward answer: “hey man, whatever. I don’t waste time focusing on things I don’t control. Whatever happens. All I know is that nobody been in the playoffs more than Clemson. Seven out of 10 years. So, pretty good odds, seven out of 10 years. And I think we’ve got the most playoff wins, tied for the most playoff wins. Whatever system they want to come up with, I’m just worried about Clemson. We keep doing our job, we’ll be fine.

4-Star OT Ben Congdon Commits to Miami

4-star OT Ben Congdon committed to Miami yesterday over an offer list that included some big name programs like Florida, Penn State, Florida State, Missouri, and plenty of others.

As for what the Hurricanes had going for it to land Congdon’s commitment, he recently shared with On3, “I love Coach Mirabal and Cristobal. I love the campus. I love how they treat and interact with my family. When the head coach and position coach are recruiting me like they are, it shows how much they want you.”

Congdon ranks as high as 177th nationally and 20th at the OT position (On3), but he ranks 318th nationally and 25th at the OT position according to the On3 industry composite.

The commitment is Miami’s 4th in the 2026 class, all four of which are 4-star recruits who make up the 12th ranked class nationally and 1st in the ACC.