$18000000+ exit fee for SMU leaving the American in pursuit of ACC membership along with 2 Pac-12 teams in the latest conference realignment: Reports

The SMU Mustangs have been linked to leaving the American Athletic Conference (AAC) to join the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) along with Stanford and Cal from the Pac-12.

The Mustangs are hoping to join a Power 5 conference and become a better college football program.

However, the ACC has yet to garner enough support to allow SMU and the two Pac-12 schools to join the conference. If SMU does get enough support, the school would have to pay a hefty fee to the AAC to leave.

CFB reporter Joseph Hoyt laid out the fee for SMU should the Mustangs leave the AAC. Hoyt revealed that the exit cost to SMU might be $18 million more than other three schools.

"Glad you brought this up. I wrote the other day about what SMU would be giving up if it went without five years of AAC revenue to get into the ACC. Add another roughly $16 million to that projection if it was seven years. Could SMU afford that? Surely. Call it an investment."

As one person pointed out, SMU would play better, and more known teams would result in more money in ticket sales, even if the school doesn't get media rights money from the ACC.

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Will SMU get enough support to join the ACC?

As of right now, it doesn't seem likely that the SMU Mustangs will get enough support to join the ACC.

It was recently reported that Stanford and Cal would not be getting enough support to join the ACC. That was a bit of a surprise as it was expected that those schools would get in while SMU was on the fence.

With Stanford and Cal not getting in, SMU's chances don't seem to good to get into the ACC.

Should SMU not get into the ACC, the school wouldn't have to pay the hefty fee of leaving the AAC, however.

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What's next for the Pac-12?

As of right now, the Pac-12 has just four schools in the conference and the future is very much up in the air.

With Stanford and Cal remaining in the Pac-12 for now, it is a good sign for the conference as it can look to add more teams to remain a conference.

Or, perhaps the Pac-12 does just merge with one of the Mountain West or American, but the conference did get some good news with Stanford and Cal not going to the ACC.