The Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner defended his organization at a news conference meant to highlight basketball, but questions about the league’s future dominated it in many ways.
Four ACC schools, including UNC Chapel Hill, have sent a letter to Congress raising concerns about limits on changing conferences that are outlined in the Protect College Sports Act. The bill has passed the Senate and now moves to the House.
The bill caps power conferences at 20 members. Any university moving from one power conference to another would have to be independent for three years before joining the new league. That’s significant in light of the fact that the Southeastern Conference (16 members) and Big Ten (18) have vastly larger media rights deals than the ACC. Clemson University and Florida State University had a long legal fight with the ACC over television dollars that was settled in 2025 with a new revenue distribution model…