ACC Commish John Swofford spoke recently after the additions of Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC this past week. One of the topics was everybody's favorite discussion point: further expansion of the conference.
If you're satisfied with the current makeup of the league, you'll be happy to hear that Ninja Swoff isn't planning any additional expansion - now or in the future:
"It's not a topic of conversation for us right now," he said. "I would not anticipate it being in the future, but we'll see. I don't predict the future much anymore, I've learned better. But it's not something that's on the table for discussion in our league right now."
That last part 'in the future' is pretty interesting. At the end, he kind of doubled back to cover his bases, but still. It was pretty telling for me to hear that it's not something he envisions happening later on with all of the instability in college football.
The bottom line is that the ACC feels like they're set. That language about no further expansion surely doesn't include Notre Dame who is already viewed as a member, even if they're not a football member. The conference hasn't appeared in any great rush to add UConn or Cincinnati, but this makes it seem like a future addition of those schools isn't very likely, either.
That all changes if the ACC thinks they can add a member with large value, but Swofford's statements seem to play that down as a possibility as conference realignment among the major conferences is slowing down.
As Swofford says, anything can change. But with the recent Grant of Rights deal, this could be the ACC we know and love for a very long time.
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