They already sold out the ACC for a bag of nickels. Why not sell the name, too?

You’d have to look for a long time to find the actual words “Atlantic” and “Coast” and “Conference” anywhere at the ACC’s big football extravaganza. Even before the league went about the business of unmooring itself geographically from the origin of its name, the initials had long ago supplanted what they stand for as the reference of first resort.

Amid the unending search for more revenue — more, more, more, more revenue — the ACC would be prudent to abandon their original meaning entirely.

There’s a price tag on everything. What about the A in ACC?

The Big 12 has openly explored selling its own name, becoming the Allstate 12 or something like that. (Curiously, the outrage is over the corporate shilling, not the fact that the Big 12 hasn’t had 12 teams in more than 12 years.) Now, that’s entirely in character for the Big 12, which would sell the naming rights to the urinal cakes in its office like a low-minors baseball team if it could. The price of everything and the value of nothing, etc.

The ACC has always tried to position itself above that fray, even if it was forced to acquiesce to title sponsors for its big championship games and tournaments some years back. And painlessly, to be fair. But ACC commissioner Jim Phillips acknowledged Monday at ACC Kickoff that the search for revenue is all-encompassing, especially with the impending settlement in the House lawsuit that’s going to distribute billions to former college athletes.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if we aren’t exploring every area that’s available,” Phillips said. “I know that it gets out there, and sometimes folks want it to be out there, but we’ve done a really nice job keeping things together in a private way. We are and have continued to look at all options when it relates to revenue.”

So beat the Big 12 to the punch and sell the name. What decorum are we preserving here? What frayed threads of tradition still bind us? “Atlantic Coast Conference” doesn’t make sense for a league with teams in California and Texas. There’s no reason not to sell that “A” to someone.

The AT&T Collegiate Conference.

The Allstate Collegiate Conference.

The Amazon Collegiate Conference.

The Aflac Collegiate Conference.

Or, since one of the world’s more instantly recognizable logos was already up on the marquee behind Phillips on Monday, thanks to the agreement to put iPads on the football sidelines, the Apple Collegiate Conference?

Step 1: Slap those three italic letters, with their “bold, silver underline that symbolizes the ACC’s journey toward a bright future,” on that famous apple with a bite out of it.

Step 2: Profit.

Phillips also made it abundantly clear, without actually coming out and saying it, that he thinks private-equity investment isn’t the way to go: “Nothing’s for free. That’s probably the most important piece of this thing.”

True enough. If the siren song of PE money is off the table, as it prudently should be, that leaves squeezing more nickels out of the existing landscape as the only option.

Might as well cash in on the most valuable real estate you have: Your given name.

If everything that once made the ACC the ACC no longer matters, and you can’t make the argument that it still does in a league that now includes Cal and Stanford and SMU and one-fifth of Notre Dame, there’s no good reason not to sell the name to the highest bidder.

If you’re willing to add those three appendages in what amounts to a Ponzi scheme — you can take their TV money and spread it around now, but that bill will eventually come due — why not go the full nine when it comes to selling out and not wimp out when it comes to the name?

Where do you draw the line? How about right below those three letters.

Sell it. Sell it for whatever you can get.

We have established what the ACC is now. We’re just haggling over the price.

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