Last week, Miami President and CEO Joe Echevarria made a pointed statement about the Miami Hurricanes' desire to get out of the ACC. He mentioned how the school's academic standards match up with the Big Ten, while the SEC would make the most sense from a geographical standpoint.
However, ESPN Senior Writer Dan Wetzel questions the importance of conferences in a world with a 24-team playoff, and suggests that Miami could be best served going the independent route.
"The best situation in football is to be an independent like Notre Dame and just schedule your way to 10-2/9-3, and you're going to get into this thing," Wetzel said on the ESPN College Gameday podcast.
Miami's path to independence could include company
The ACC is a dead-end street. We all know this. It's a terribly-run conference that no one wants to be in. With the possibility of the "Protect College Sports Act" being passed in Congress, it's time for the Hurricanes to make a move so they aren't trapped. That's why Echevarria decided to forgo any potential leverage, and just lay out Miami's future plans to leave the conference.
"It's very rare for a president to come out [and say that] while an active member of the ACC," Wetzel added. "The ACC is not a conference, it's a situationship. Nobody really wants to be there for sure."
Miami isn't alone in its disgust with the ACC leadership and the poor TV contract the conference is trapped in. The Hurricanes were part of a lawsuit against the conference with Clemson, FSU, and North Carolina. Wetzel suggests that the best route for these four schools might be to go independent, and then get into scheduling agreements with each other. And the author of "Death to the BCS" might have the right idea.
If Miami, Clemson, FSU, North Carolina, and Notre Dame agreed to play each other annually, that would knock out a third of the schedule. After that, each other can make agreements with other conferences similar to what Notre Dame has with the ACC. If all five programs are independents in football only, then they could all have agreements with the conference.
If the ACC decides not to go for that, Miami could turn to one of the G6 conferences to fill out a couple of games, and work out individual home-and-home series for the rest of the games. As long as the games against Notre Dame, Clemson, FSU, and North Carolina are on the schedule annually, the Hurricanes can be a little more selective about filling out the rest of the schedule.
And with the likely demands of 10 or 11 P4 games on the schedule, teams will have to entertain the thought of playing non-conference games against the Hurricanes. An extended home-and-home series with an in-state program like Florida or UCF would be nice to have.
With the playoff expansion, there might be less of an appetite for the Big Ten and the SEC to expand and, without any leverage, Miami might have to pay a large sum of money to join one of those two conferences, while also forgoing some of the TV money that comes with it. If that's the case, why bother? Miami is far less interested in the Big Ten schedule than it is in the money that comes with being in the conference.
This all seems like it could be a few years away from happening, but the clock tends to speed up in college football, and Miami is ready to lay all options out on the table.
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