JLM-Hokie

It’s likely not happening so might as well boat race them if we can

** Edited by JLM-Hokie at 11/8/2025, 8:01:57 PM

Adding teams means an additional, full payout equal to what current teams get. The idea is to invite those schools but give them a reduced payout and then divide up the difference amongst existing teams… it’s just a ponzi scheme ** Edited by JLM-Hokie at 8/12/2023, 6:10:14 PM

As much as people think that it will make sense for ND to join a conference sooner rather than later, they simply do not want to. Right now, they have an in to the CFP as an Independent and an athletic department that generates plenty of revenue without a conference. For them, it’s self serving to keep the ACC together for as long as possible because the ACC gives them a high profile home for all their sports outside of hockey. Expanding the conference would make it harder to dissolve the conference in the short term. If the ACC blows up, I doubt the BIG or the SEC offer them the same home for their Olympic sports without football.

Maybe their concern/opinion would carry more weight. In this case, we shouldn’t change the face of our conference based on pressure from a school that isn’t guaranteed to be here for the long-term

With Fox/NBC/CBS owning the BIG and FOX owning most of the Big-12, ESPN can’t afford to lose the SEC

You’ve got 31 teams between the SEC and ACC and who know how many in the Big-12. You still have your group of 5 schools to fill Fridays and late nights, there’s going to be multiple ACC games that would otherwise be on ESPN+ on any given week. One would think that with the money they threw at the SEC, those games are going to be featured starting in 2024 over the ACC in order for ESPN to make their money back. There will be some decent games available for another network

With the SEC TV deal taking affect next year, ESPN is going to have a solid inventory of games. They already farmed out games to regional networks which will now go to the CW. My question is, could the ACC ask and would ESPN be willing to sell some of their inventory of football/basketball games to another media entity like an Apple or an Amazon? Could this be a way for ESPN to cut some budget and for the conference to earn some extra revenue? I’m guessing people smarter than me have already explored this option but seems to be something that could help all involved

They can throw around tens of millions just like they could a few years ago. ESPN wanted no parts of the PAC during their recent media negotiations and have split with FOX for the Big-12. I think the BIG will end up adding Oregon and Washington at a reduced payout because, if they had the finances to ass them earlier, they would have. I think with the PAC falling apart, they have to add them now as they can’t leave UCLA and USC on an island by themselves.

With Oregon and Washington going to the BIG and the Arizona schools going to the Big-12, that leaves Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, Washington State and Utah. Those brands do not bring enough to the table to increase the value of the conference as a whole.

Their financial situation minus the Texas/OU settlement is still very good considering that they lost their marquee teams. The difference is, they did get to negotiate a new TV deal at the current market value and got to again split their media rights amongst multiple outlets, increasing the value of their rights deal, in-line with current schools and the current market. Not only that, but they will get to do it at least once more before the ACC deal is up. While the ACC/ESPN deal has “look-ins” those are still exclusive to ESPN who doesn’t have to compete against anyone while evaluating those look-ins. The Big-12 also handled football and basketball separately in those dealings, getting a better overall deal for basketball as those rights were further split between ESPN and Fox even more than the last contract. The Big-12 did very well with what they had and while we can get into a pissing match over who makes the 3rd most money… the fact that they are even close without Texas and Oklahoma is a testament to the Big-12 and the deal they put together. Meanwhile, while they are negotiating another TV contract in a few years along with the BIG and SEC, all who will have negotiated 2 new deals before ours are up again, the ACC’s gap will only grow larger. ** Edited by JLM-Hokie at 5/30/2023, 10:13:22 AM

YouTubeTV (google) just bought the NFL Sunday Ticket, The NFL next season will stream a 1st round playoff game exclusively on Peacock, Amazon now streams the NFL Thursday night games. Rumor is NASCAR is going to sign a deal that has Amazon streaming all of its xfinity series races, WWE has an exclusive streaming deal with Peacock… There are actually more options now than ever. Disney right now is struggling financially so they may not be willing to put up a big number but you never know.