The latest SEC news should add to North Carolina's desire to eventually leave the ACC

The University of North Carolina has been making a concerted effort to develop its football program into a national contender.

They also have been at the forefront of most rumors surrounding conference realignment.

The Southeastern Conference has separated itself as the powerhouse conference in college football and has no intentions of slowing down. Especially with the expanded College Football Playoffs, the conference continues to build its brand in an effort to have multiple teams clog the field each and every season.

On Thursday, the SEC revealed some major football scheduling news that will be implemented starting in 2026. This news should simply add to North Carolina's desire to find its way out of the ACC as soon as possible.

The SEC will implement a 9-game conference schedule. This move is aiming toward "reinforcing the SEC’s position as the nation’s leader in competitive excellence and fan excitement."

Here are some notable tidbits regarding this major announcement:

-The SEC will continue with a single-standings, non-divisional structure.
-Each school will play three annual opponents, focused on maintaining many traditional rivalries.
-Each team’s remaining six games will rotate among the remaining conference schools.
-Each team will face every other SEC program at least once every two years, and every opponent home and away in four years.

In addition to this, the conference desires to shy away from "cupcake" non-conference games. Each SEC program will be required to schedule at least one additional high quality non-conference contest. These games could be played against:

-The ACC
-Big Ten
-Big 12
or
-Notre Dame

This is horrible news for the other major conferences, as the SEC is separating itself even more from the pack. Already the best conference in terms of college football talent, now, the conference is forcing its teams to not only square off against each other (helping increase strength of schedule across the board), but is mandating strong non-conference action games to help bolster potential College Football Playoff resumes.

The ACC continues to fall behind in many aspects. North Carolina can not afford to be a part of the continuing downfall, as they must find a way to land in another conference that provides more stability for the future, especially in major sports such as football and basketball.

Eventually, North Carolina's plan should be to find a way to join the SEC and become part of this conference powerhouse.