Jim Barker

As not just the former president of Clemson University, but the former chairman of the ACC's Council of Presidents, Jim Barker had a front-row seat to many of the major conference realignment movements of the past.

That institutional knowledge gives him some interesting and poignant perspective of the current shifts taking place -- and the possibly existential crisis facing the ACC.

Two years ago, in the midst of Texas and Oklahoma announcing their departure for the SEC, Barker said he hoped the ACC would make a big, bold move. His idea at the time was merging with the Pac-12 to form the "American Coast Conference."

That never happened. And Barker now finds himself gravely concerned for not just the ACC but entire enterprise of college athletics.

"I think we need to blow the whole thing up and start from scratch," he said. "But I don't know how we do that because there's no leader to do it."

Barker served as Clemson's president from 1999 to 2013.