In around five days time, a 7-5 Duke Blue Devils team will play for the conference championship. If Duke defeats Virginia, the Atlantic Coast Conference will be left out of the college football playoffs. It would be the final domino to fall in what has been long assumed; that the ACC will collapse.

Which leads us to the question, what’s next for the Atlantic Coast Conference? Truth is you’d be breaking up a pretty solid and historic basketball conference to start. Teams like North Carolina, Duke, Louisville, Notre Dame, and North Carolina State all have historic programs. But the football side of things is where the money will go. That will ultimately be the downfall for the conference. 

Who Goes Where From The Atlantic Coast Conference?

Florida State has been one of the driving forces behind leaving the conference and starting the domino effect. I firmly believe they will end up joining the SEC if the ACC breaks down and loses member schools. Clemson is another team that looks destined for the SEC as well, considering their natural rivalry with South Carolina. You can even argue that Georgia Tech is another natural fit, considering the Georgia rivalry.

With the SEC already at sixteen members, three more would push them close to twenty. It would be the end of their expansion for the time being. Which leaves several other ACC schools with nowhere to go, but it is simple when you get into it. Cal and Stanford would just rejoin the new Pac 12 only a couple of years after it disintegrated. 

That leaves us with:

• North Carolina
• Duke
• Wake Forest
• North Carolina State
• Louisville 
• Notre Dame
• Boston College
• Pitt
• Syracuse 
• SMU
• Virginia
• Virginia Tech
• Miami

SMU seems like a natural fit for the Big 12 Conference, considering their Texas location. Many people would argue that they already should be in the Big 12. I can easily see Louisville sliding into that 14th slot in the conference as well to balance things out. As the conference would be adding a solid football program and a basketball power. More importantly, they would be expanding their footprint into Kentucky.  

The (New) New Big East??? 

Now here’s where things get a little crazy, or at least in my head, with my crazy ideas. There would be ten member schools remaining, all looking for a home, and the solution is simple. Remember how amazing the Big East was back in the day? Although you would not have all the traditional teams, you get Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College, and Notre Dame. 

Now add Wake Forest, North Carolina Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami, and North Carolina State. That provides a pretty solid basketball conference. Excluding Notre Dame, it includes a balanced ten-member football conference as well. Obviously, this is all hypothetical, but with the next wave of conference realignment coming soon. It seems unlikely that the Atlantic Coast Conference survives.