10 ACC teams to reportedly jump ship as conference realignment hits Jim Phillips' coast with teams looking to join Big Ten, SEC & Big 12 expansion

The ACC could be involved in major conference realignment in the future. With conference realignment continuing to be a major talking point, there are a lot of questions about what the Atlantic Coast Conference could look like and which teams might be heading to new conferences.

College football insider Greg Swaim discussed how current ACC teams could be on the move by 2026-27 in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Thursday.

"As we reported yesterday, it'll be 2026-27 until the #ACC blows up. However we do have some details on the third party communications though as to where as many as TEN teams will wind up. Working on the report, as we just got this information, and will have it for you early this evening!!," Swaim wrote on X.

Swaim has not posted the report as of this writing.

Swaim tagged 10 schools with hashtags in his tweet: Florida State, Clemson, Miami, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Virginia, Pitt and NC State.

In the replies, Swaim predicted Syracuse will be headed back to the Big East and that he doesn’t anticipate UNC or Duke heading to the Big 12.

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Which ACC teams could be joining Big 12 expansion in conference realignment?

The ACC teams that are looking for a new conference will find themselves in an interesting position.

The Southeastern Conference has already said they are not looking to add more programs at this time and is focused on its current 16 members. The Big Ten, which already has 18 members, is reportedly only considering schools that are AAU accredited.

So, that only leaves the Big 12, which has 16 members, as the only other power conference – unless the Pac-12 rises with some ACC teams helping the way. In the replies to his post, Swaim wrote that the Big 12 is “definitely talking to” the Pac-12’s remaining two members: Washington State and Oregon State.

It seems that would mean that both the Florida State Seminoles and Clemson Tigers would be heading to the Big 12 expansion as they are not AAU-accredited universities.

Losing these two major programs would severely impact the ACC's value and stability. Their departures would leave programs looking for new homes.

Nine of the ACC’s 18 teams are AAU-accredited universities:

• Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
• North Carolina Tar Heels
• Notre Dame Fighting Irish
• Pittsburgh Panthers
• Virginia Cavaliers
• Stanford Cardinal
• Duke Blue Devils
• Miami Hurricanes
• California Golden Bears