The ACC is motivated to negotiate because they want a pay raise. What is ESPN's motivation. What are they seeking from the conference? I don't see any reason for them to change the current situation. If they want West Virginia/Cincinnati they can just buy Big 12 media rights. As for uneven distribution, that is done within the conference. ESPN buys the whole package for X dollars and the conference splits the pot however they choose.

ESPN doesn't care if The ACC is second tier or the second coming. They don't view the conference as teams/players/schools. That's the job of their TV announcers. The real ESPN is a corporation buying TV content that they can use to sell advertising on Saturdays in the Fall. They have a pretty good selection of content under contract until 2036 at a very favorable price. If you want to change that contract you need to offer them something valuable.

the ACC is a strong and compelling product. They absolutely care about this! They chose to secure the ACC years ago knowing that there would be further realignment. This wasn't an accident, this was calculated. I expect more changes in the next year or so in an attempt to secure the ACC as one of the 3-4 surviving conferences.

their priority is not being fans but, being business people. Their challenge is how to maximize revenue from the combination of all their properties. That is the equation ESPN must currently solve and the balance is finding the line where the SEC and ACC combined as well as any other future additions is maximized. There is also the added consideration of control in there. At some point the suits at ESPN have to ask themselves the question of when they ultimately damage the top line revenue and bottom line net if the disparity between their properties widens so much that overall viewership declines.

ESPN doesn't care if The ACC is second tier or the second coming. They don't view the conference as teams/players/schools. That's the job of their TV announcers. The real ESPN is a corporation buying TV content that they can use to sell advertising on Saturdays in the Fall. They have a pretty good selection of content under contract until 2036 at a very favorable price. If you want to change that contract you need to offer them something valuable.

...so they can keep funneling it to their primary conference, the SEC. They couldn't care less about the ACC or B12 conferences.

stated, the ACC is in the most densely populated area of all conferences. You need to cultivate that population.

Attracting a fan following is the job of the schools. Yes, ESPN needs to present them as positively as they can. But ESPN can't play the game. The teams have to earn their viewers. You're telling ESPN, "We can't succeed unless you pay us more." ESPN would respond, "Improve your product, increase your audience, then we'll talk." Even if ACC ratings went sky-high ESPN would just say, "Thank you very much." They have a contract and I think they will ride it 'til 2036. The answer to this problem will not be solved by The ACC dealing with ESPN. Some individual school or bloc of schools will have to mke a run for it. Break away. I worry that any deal involving The ACC and The PAC will require an exrended term of the media deal and both GoRs. ESPN isn't going to give up more money without getting something in return.

That started before the ACCN came into existence. It appeared they wanted to make the SEC look better by belittling the ACC. Was this an attempt to encourage the best players in the ACC footprint to play for SEC teams? It sure looked that way. I stopped watching ESPN's Saturday pre-game show because of that crap. Probably my O&M glasses, but it also appeared they only went after the ACC. The ACC was basically on par with all of the other P5 conferences, but they really went out of their way to trash us.

I haven’t watched that show in years. Too long and too much SEC crap.

Why would they? If the ACC was a second tier conference, the value/appeal would be much less and thus ESPN would probably earn much less money overall. There has to be some balance. Just look at the poor viewing ratings for the recent Bama/Georgia playoff game. Viewers want variety, including Cinderella teams, and concentrating power in just a few teams, or conferences, will eventually degrade the product. The projected enormous TV deals for two conferences might just be the beginning of the end. There’s already enough inequity among conferences now, and the TV media giants have caused it.