Could Miami Go Independent? The 24-Team Playoff May Be Loosening College Football's Conference Structure

Joe Echevarria, the president of the University of Miami, has said out loud what conference commissioners tend to avoid: the Hurricanes could leave the ACC and play football as an independent. He made the remarks in an interview with Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, and a Fox News opinion column has since used them as a starting point for a broader argument about where college football is headed.

Echevarria was careful to say Miami is proud of its ACC membership. His complaint was about money and power. "If the economics were even, we wouldn't be having any of these conversations," he told Dellenger. In his telling, the ACC sits in the sport's second tier, and that placement is the reason Miami has no vote on the 24-team playoff while the Big Ten and SEC do.

The financial gap behind that claim is large. According to the column, the Big Ten and SEC already pay their schools about $25 million more per team than the ACC pays. That figure could grow considerably in a few years, when those two conferences are able to negotiate new media deals. If the ACC keeps falling behind, the column notes, Miami could be at a serious competitive disadvantage against peer institutions.

The legislative backdrop matters here. Echevarria pointed to a provision in the Protect College Sports Act, a bill whose contents keep changing. As described, it would stop schools from switching conferences unless they first go independent for several years. He wants it removed. "You cannot lock us into a conference," he said.

Asked whether Miami would actually go independent, he did not rule it out. "If we have to go independent, I like our chances because we are a national brand," he said. He also acknowledged the downside: he wouldn't like it, because scheduling the other sports is really tough. Football might thrive, he suggested, but he asked about track, volleyball and the golf team.

The column treats that objection as solvable. It points out that USC plays Penn State in non-football sports despite the awkward logistics and heavy travel, and that Miami already has a conference rivalry with Cal. If streamers, television networks or other broadcasters will pay more for independent programs, the writer asks, what stops big brands from following Notre Dame? The column notes that Notre Dame's 2026 schedule gives it a notable edge in the race for a 12-team playoff over SEC teams facing tougher opponents every week.

From there the piece moves into speculation, and it is labeled as opinion. The writer argues that the 24-team playoff makes conference championship games effectively meaningless, which raises the question of why conferences should exist at all. Geography, he says, is no longer the point; the ACC and Big Ten mostly exist to simplify group media-rights negotiations, which is why UCLA and Rutgers share a league, as do Stanford and Miami.

The column then wonders whether Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, Michigan or USC might also break away rather than endure demanding conference schedules for little reward. It also revives the idea of a breakaway league of perhaps 64 top programs, which would mean a smaller playoff, bigger matchups, more media revenue, and the Group of Six left behind. None of that is reported as planned. It is the author's projection.

What is concrete is Echevarria's stated position and the two things to watch: whether the Protect College Sports Act's limits on switching conferences are removed, and whether other major programs begin to consider the Notre Dame model.