The Big Ten and SEC have spent the last few years remaking the landscape of college football through their cold war, and Thursday brought the latest tectonic shift. The SEC, after staunchly defending its eight-game conference schedule amid College Football Playoff expansion talks, finally acquiesced to the Big Ten’s pressure and added a ninth conference matchup to the schedule for future seasons.
As with every battle between the sport’s two mega conferences, the ripple effects quickly broadside the ACC. The impact of Louisville is potentially twofold. First, it could threaten the long-term viability of the Cardinals’ annual in-state rivalry game, and second, the ACC is likely to follow suit, as Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported on Thursday.