South Carolina Football: Could ACC rivals Clemson and UNC be heading to the SEC?

Conference realignment, much like the transfer portal and NIL, has dominated the non-football, football discussions over the past two years since Texas and Oklahoma were first announced as future members of the SEC. Since then, there has been a massive amount of inter-conference change, and more could be coming, including some potential movement for some South Carolina football rivals.

The Clemson Tigers and North Carolina Tar Heels have both been exploring options around an ACC exit. This May, reports from Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger indicated that a group of ACC programs (including the two USC rivals) were unhappy with the league and wanted to explore other options.

Clemson, North Carolina, Florida State, NC State, Miami, Virginia, and Virginia Tech met to discuss a group exodus from the conference. Later on, Louisville expressed a similar desire. However, due to the expectation of losing millions and millions of dollars, nothing came to fruition.

This week, more speculation and rumors began arising about an Atlantic Coast Conference shakeup, with the Clemson Tigers being the central figure in the discussions. Coming off of the heels of the league adding SMU, Cal, and Stanford in August, the league could be losing one of its top football programs.

Clemson is set to have a massive Board of Trustees meeting in October. Many have speculated that the Upstate of South Carolina-based university could be announcing their departure from the ACC after that meeting.

Greg Flugaur, a college football writer who accurately reported the Pac-12 crumbling this summer, says Clemson, North Carolina, and Florida State (at minimum) will be abandoning the league in short order, with Clemson taking their leave potentially even sooner than the others. He says the SEC is the most likely landing spot for the three disgruntled ACC teams.

David Hood of TigerNet.com reports that this will not be happening. He did not rule out the possibility in the future (even the relatively-near future), but his sources are indicating that the board meeting in October will not be announcing an ACC exit or plans for an exit despite the league adding three members (replacements for CU, UNC, and FSU, perhaps?) last month.

What is really going to happen? The college football world doesn’t know just yet. However, South Carolina football fans should brace themselves for the real possibility that their biggest rival and a border rival could be joining the SEC in the not-too-distant future.