North Carolina Tar Heels: No. 1 Expansion Candidate?

The college athletics world is changing with conference realignment, and one analyst believes the North Carolina Tar Heels are the No. 1 wanted program.

It’s been a few months since the Atlantic Coast Conference made the last major move in conference re-alignment by adding California, Stanford, and SMU. The North Carolina Tar Heels were one of three schools in the ACC that were opposed to that expansion, joining Clemson and Florida State.

During the college football season, one of the many driving forces behind realignment, those expansion talks began to slow down, but now, with the regular season coming to an end, they are starting to heat back up again. Questions of which school will make a move next? Which conference will expand (or collapse) even further?

With the most recent College Football Playoff decision to leave an undefeated, 13-0 Florida State team out of the playoffs in favor of a one-loss SEC team, many fans are wondering what the means for the future of the ACC and if there should be any concern if you’re a fan of one of those schools?

Yes, Travis was injured. But the talks of leaving FSU out of the playoffs in favor of an SEC team began even before the injury occurred during this College GameDay Segment in Week 10.

So, is the North Carolina Tar Heels a candidate for leaving the ACC and joining one of the growing conferences of the Big Ten or the SEC? ESPN Analyst Pete Thamel believes they are the number one program wanted.

During a recent ESPN College GameDay podcast, Thamel discussed the 16-team SEC may not want to expand at the moment but may have to if the 20-team Big Ten continues to grow and move into the SEC region.

"I think the rankings, and the people of Florida State and Clemson don’t like to hear this. But it’s North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, Florida State. And maybe Florida State and then Clemson because they bring more eyeballs to TV sets. Those are the schools in the cross-hairs, as of right now there is nowhere to go."

Thamel’s comments take place at the 32:00 mark of the podcast if you would like to give it a listen, click here. Of course, as Thamel mentions, right now, no conference is looking to expand (to our knowledge), but it could be coming sooner rather than later, and the North Carolina Tar Heels bring a lot to the table, athletically and academically.

Could there be a change on the way? Are the top schools in the ACC not happy with the direction the conference is headed? Is this latest College Football Playoff decision the final straw to force a change? Maybe, or maybe not.

But for Tar Heel fans, knowing that the athletic department is viewed as one of the top most-wanted in expansion is a good feeling in case the ACC were to begin to tumble in a direction the Pac-12 went, then North Carolina would almost certainly have an offer to stay in a power conference.

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UNC could be on the move, but for now, there’s still one game left to play and you can cash in on it at FanDuel! All you have to do is sign up, deposit $10 or more and then bet $5 or more on UNC’s moneyline odds vs. West Virginia. If the Tar Heels win, you’ll win $150 in bonus bets! Sign up for FanDuel today.