Mark Packer had plenty to say Friday morning on the final edition of the Packer and Durham show on the ACC network about the future of the conference.

Packer gave his thoughts on what the news that UCLA and USC are heading to the Big 10 means for the ACC.

“The trillion-dollar question is our league,” Packer said on his final show with Durham. “To me, this is going to be, we had a stretch during expansion, years ago with John Swofford. It felt like a critical time for the existence of the Atlantic Coast Conference and it was. And John Swofford had a front-row seat and knew it was coming. And so what did you see happen? Here comes Boston College. Here comes the expansion with Pittsburgh…and a lot of people didn’t understand…Well, if that had not happened by John Swofford and the grants of media rights the ACC would not be here.”

The ACC has been here before and was able to make the moves to survive.

“So we have kind of been through this before but this how now reached the point where hey you have ESPN and they are in the football business. You have Fox Sports and they are in the football business. A year ago name, image and likeness was front and center and we have seen how it has altered the world. And, now you have the Alliance was formed and you got a sense that at least the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the ACC had this kumbaya and stiff-armed the college football playoff for a while and we had this saneness among us and then you had this issue yesterday,” said Packer.

The league is about to find out how committed they are to the survival of the conference.

“To me, it feels like all bets are off. I think the ACC much like it was 20 years ago is now in a position of okay what is this going to turn into… We are now going to find out the ultimate where are we,” said Packer.

The former Clemson Tiger explained how the Grant of Rights makes things different for the ACC.

“There are a trillion rumors and that is what they are at this time but you can’t dismiss a week ago if we had said UCLA and USC they want out well that is not going to happen, said Packer. “The difference there and what this league has is that UCLA and USC’s grant of media rights were coming to an end, so there is no penalty to leave.

The grant of the media rights that is currently in existence for the ACC gives you the fortress of we are all in this together, which means…that if school X of the ACC decided that ‘hey I am going to go join the SEC or the Big Ten or whatever I am out of here,’ your media rights between now and 2035-36 belong in the Atlantic Coast Conference. So, all of the money that you are making with that guy over there the league (ACC) keeps.”

The stability and future of the conference are now at stake.

“It is going to be a critical time in my opinion in terms of the stability of the league,” Packer added.