Miami president calls ACC 'second tier,' openly weighs Big Ten, SEC and independence

Miami's president has said out loud what ACC athletic directors usually keep to themselves. In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Joe Echevarria described the Hurricanes as stuck below the Big Ten and SEC. "We sit in the second tier," he said. He named both leagues as places Miami could fit and raised football independence as a fallback.

Echevarria framed the issue as money, not unhappiness with the ACC. He told Yahoo that Miami won nearly every game it could last season and hit the ceiling of the ACC's revenue-sharing model, yet still earned about what Big Ten and SEC programs earn while investing at a very different level. He pointed to a gap of roughly $25 million per school between those two leagues and the ACC, and said it could nearly double when the Big Ten and SEC media deals are reworked around 2030. The ACC's contract with ESPN runs until 2036. He also complained that the ACC has no vote on the format of the 24-team playoff.

He went further than most school leaders do in public about where Miami might land. As CBS Sports reported, Echevarria said Miami's status as an AAU research university matches the Big Ten's academic profile, while geography points to the SEC. On independence, he said Miami's national brand would help in football but that scheduling the school's other sports would be hard.

The timing matters. Congress is weighing the Protect College Sports Act, which in its current form would cap conference size at 20 teams. Miami, Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina are pushing to raise the cap to 22, which would leave room for the ACC's top programs to move. Those same schools have already sued the conference over its exit-fee structure. Whether the bill passes, and in what form, will largely decide how realistic any of Echevarria's options are.

None of this changes the 2026 standings, but it puts the ACC's top team at the center of the league's future. The comments came the same week Miami reached No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time in almost 25 years.

What it means for Pittsburgh

The Hurricanes are 6-0 heading into Saturday's home game against Pittsburgh on ESPN and Disney+. They have scored 291 points, or 48.5 per game, and allowed 84, or 14.0 per game. Road wins at Clemson (41-13) and Wake Forest (33-20) have kept them perfect in league play. Their last game was the closest of the season: a 43-35 win over Florida State, and the 35 points were the most Miami has allowed this year.

The market has Miami as a heavy favorite. Novig prices the Hurricanes at -1329 on the moneyline, while the best Miami price across the 11 venues is -1185 on Polymarket. That is a noticeable gap for a game this lopsided. Miami is favored by 19.5 points at Novig (-111), and theScore Bet has the same number at -110. FanDuel offers Pittsburgh at +20.5. Totals run from 48 at Pinnacle to 49.5 at Hard Rock Bet, with Novig at 48.5. That number is the same as Miami's own scoring average, so the market expects the Hurricanes' offense to set the pace even as their president's comments dominate the week's news.