By Dave Holcomb
SouthernPigskin.com

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As college football expansion continues, Dave Holcomb looks at options for the ACC.

Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC is a done deal.

The 14 SEC presidents and chancellors voted unanimously to extend invitations to the Longhorns and Sooners. Just a day later, Texas and Oklahoma accepted the invitations to join the SEC starting on July 1, 2025.

It took just a couple schools changing conferences about 10 years ago to cause a ripple effect across the country. As a result, Nebraska and Colorado left the Big 12, Maryland exited the ACC and Big East football folded.

Time will tell whether Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC will be the start of another seismic change in the conference landscape. At the very least, the Big 12, now without its two biggest brand-named schools, is severely weakened and is ripe for picking as the Big East was about a decade ago.

Is there an apple from the Big 12 tree that could catch the eye of the ACC brass? Theres at least one, but the most appealing school for ACC expansion still remains outside any conference.

Here are three schools that should be the ACCs top choices should the conference expand:

Notre Dame

With the Big 12 football blue bloods finding new homes, the best football school without a conference is obviously Notre Dame. That will remain the case unless prestigious Pac-12 schools such as USC or UCLA attempt to move. Even so, Notre Dame may still be the most attractive football program for either the ACC, Big Ten or SEC.

The question with Notre Dame continues to be whether the football program will ever enter a conference. With the schools NBC TV deal, it doesnt have to. NBC reportedly pays Notre Dame $15 million for television rights every year.

But as Tadd Haislop eloquently argued in a 2020 article, money is only part of why Notre Dame remains independent. Without a conference, the Fighting Irish have more schedule flexibility. They must play five ACC opponents every year, but the rest of the Notre Dame slate has traditional rivalry games against USC, Stanford, and Navy. In recent years, the Irish also played Georgia, and Michigan.

Those games wont be scheduled if Notre Dame plays an eight-game conference slate in the ACC.

Still, there are so many advantages for the ACC if it somehow convinced Notre Dame to permanently join the conference (as it has for all other sports) that this is a topic that isnt going away.

The ACC needs a second powerhouse football program to challenge Clemson. As seen last year, Notre Dame makes the ACC conference more interesting and provides the conference a second national contender. Florida State and/or Miami should be those programs, but for a plethora of reasons, they arent right now.

Instead, the ACC is Clemson or bust. Notre Dame changes that immediately should it join the ACC.

West Virginia

In a perfect world, West Virginia would have entered the ACC when Syracuse, Pitt and Louisville did. Instead, it settled for joining the Big 12.

Ideologically, West Virginia to the Big 12 seemed to fit, but the Mountaineers are practically 1,000 miles away from any other Big 12 school. Travel for the West Virginia sports teams has been really difficult.

The Mountaineers arent in a big market, and they arent a national brand, but the football program dominates its region and even competes with Pitt and Penn State in western Pennsylvania.

With so many events slated to air on the ACC Network in the ensuing years, a rabid fanbase may prove to be as important as a big fanbase. If the ACC wants its newest member to drive up subscriptions to the conferences TV network, West Virginia is a great choice.

Admittedly, rivalries have nothing to do with conference realignment decisions, but West Virginia in the ACC would also be great because of its long history with Pitt, Syracuse and Virginia Tech.

Cincinnati

Kansas basketball in the ACC is an intriguing possibility, but like rivalries, basketball isnt usually what drives the needle in conference realignment. Its football.

Therefore, the third expansion choice for the ACC right now is Cincinnati. Some will argue it should be UCF, and thats completely valid. Except for the fact that I seriously doubt Florida State and Miami ever allow the Knights to join the ACC. The Seminoles and Hurricanes are having enough problems recruiting as it is.

The Bearcats have built a powerful football program in their own right, going 31-6 in the last three seasons. Last year, Cincinnati finished No. 8 with its only defeat by a field goal to Georgia in the Peach Bowl.

Cincinnati isnt a huge market, but its not small either. Its the third-largest TV market in Ohio and 36th-largest in the US.

Maybe most importantly, Cincinnati would add a 10th state to the ACC footprint. Maybe the Bearcats dont become the perennial challenger to Clemson, but Cincinnati in the ACC could make it easier for other schools in the conference to land top recruits in Ohio, which is usually ranked among the Top 10 states in producing FBS players.