UofL’s Heird remains confident in ACC

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - University of Louisville vice president of athletics Josh Heird said on Thursday that UofL has not been approached by any other league. The Atlantic Coast Conference looked somewhat vulnerable after the Big Ten recently added UCLA and USC from the Pac 12.

That move comes after the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma from the Big XII.

“On the realignment question I would tell you that I’m really, really confident where the ACC is.” Heird said. “I’m really confident in what the commissioner of the ACC is doing to put the ACC in the best possible situation to be successful and you know we have constant conversations at the conference level with AD’s, with president’s, with ACC staff and I can assure Cardinal fans that the ACC is in a strong position and it’s the responsibility and the job of the commissioner to try to put us in a better position and he’s working every minute of every day to do that.”

He added that the league could potentially revisit it’s television deal with ESPN.

“I think that they understand that the ACC has to be extremely healthy for college athletics to be successful,” he said. " So I think they do feel an obligation to make sure that that transpires. Not every decision, it’s hard to believe, but not every decision is based on the bottom line. At some point, we’re going to need more, take the Big Ten and SEC, 32 teams, to make college athletics viable, and so what does that look like? Can partnerships be created? What are the entities involved to make sure that ESPN is getting the value that they feel they deserve and they need. I think there’s a path there to have some of those conversations.”

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips figures to address the situation at the ACC Kickoff event next week in Charlotte, North Carolina.