ACC's future as a top conference secured with network deal

playACC commissioner John Swofford and ESPN president John Skipper share their thoughts on the benefits of the two sides partnering on a 20-year deal and rights extension to launch the ACC Network by August 2019. (1:50)CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Let's rewind five years, shall we? Conference realignment destabilized the college football foundation we had come to know. Talk about 16-team superconferences started dominating the discussion, and soon survival of the fittest scenarios began unfolding.

The ACC? Many thought the future looked bleak, especially after Florida State and the Big 12 became publicly tangled in a public relations mess that dominated spring meetings in 2012. A few months later,…