I remember hearing a few years back the SEC Network was a cash cow for ESPN. I don't know the profit margins for ESPN on the ACC Network. That needs investigation to really accurately address questions as the OP put forth. I will go with what is more or less common knowledge. It is costing ESPN surely about $400MM yearly at least just to make those payouts to the ACC schools. What is the ESPN profit margin on that each year? You answer that. I can substantiate what I say in the next paragraph as fact or of little relevance. How many a ACC schools could be funded in the SEC with that $400MM? Is it more advantageous monetarily to ESPN to have those ACC schools playing SEC powerhouses that nearly all fill 80,000 seat stadiums with roaring fans or playing Duke, Wake Forest, BC, Syracuse & Pitt? ** Edited by WarHog38 at 8/6/2023, 9:44:59 PM

B!G will be 100% off ESPN Big XII will primarily be a Fox property. It may feel better to think they have conspiring against us, but they still need the programming volume.

Cutting the college football athletic conferences you must negotiate expensive media deals with in half. Let's first look at the present day PAC. With Washington State, Oregon State, Stanford & Cal all left as road kill on the side of the highway. All that road kill is saving one of your media conglomerates about $120MM - $150MM a year in future contract payouts. How much roadkill is in the ACC? How much money would ESPN save by eliminating ACC road kill? When looking a the present day media landscape on viewing major college football. A person must ask those questions. They sadly have became very relevant.

didn't accept ESPN's offer that all of a sudden the B12 got a decent contract with the ability to add the four corners. It's also suspicious that Oregon and Washington actually get the same amount or less than the B12 contract, at least until the BIG negotiates a new one. ESPN no longer has to carry the 4 teams left in the PAC at the amounts that the PAC wanted, and Fox was nowhere to be seen when the PAC put the contract out to bid. The PAC really stepped in it, and the B12 got some programs that really have no business being in the new B12. Utah and ASU REALLY, and mean, REALLY did not want to be in the B12, but their arrogance caught up with them. I have mixed feelings, as ASU and Utah are decent programs, and Utah has one hell of a football team, long term, I don't like the additions. I, as a fan, would rather have had Zona and UConn. Colorado doesn't move the needle one way or the other, but they left the conference because of Texas, so I'll give them a break.

You are right. Arizona State entered the Big 12 when they were kicking & screaming against doing so just the previous day. Utah officials bordered on arrogance towards a Big 12 move just several weeks ago, It was reported those same Utah officials wore B1G reps out on the telephone early in the last week. Utah fans would have also thumbed their noses at the Big 12 just several weeks ago. No University would have been admitted to a different athletic conference under those circumstances in decades past. I cannot imagine Arkansas or South Carolina entering the SEC after those type displays years ago. Arizona State & Utah do not belong in the Big 12. They don't deserve it.

treated the B12 leftovers when there was no place to land. Then, even with USCLA leaving, the arrogance they showed was astounding. I would take Oregon State and Washington state in a heartbeat over those two schools, and I dread even a discussion about Stanford and Cal. The B12 was rising from the ashes as the truck stop misfit leftovers, and with that chip on their shoulders, it was setting up to be a really fun competitive conference. 3'rd, 4'th, or %th place to the other conference doesn't even hit the radar in the B12. It just doesn't matter. I wish the ACC had taken them along with CAL and Stanford, as some things appear to be more important on the coasts than they do out here in fly over country.

Anybody that thinks this is about anything but the dollar after what just happened to the PAC belongs permanently living at Disney World. The dollars involved with scheduling appealing TV product and even about things as the talent pool of D1 type athletes. All have been studied at Think Tanks financed by Big Media. The ACC or the SEC or B1G for that matter, mean nothing sentimentally to any Big Media outlet. It is just PRODUCT. I think they want a P2 and one single conference. Those being the SEC. B1G & Big 12. That will optimize the product at the least expense, those two things are the Bottom Line. Nothing else matters. Those that wonder why their Dear ACC was shunned in favor of the Big 12 can blame it on the travel expenses inherent with geography. That simple.

dead weight that TV exec would like to get rid of, including in the SEC and B1G. It will be interesting to see if they try to do it. And when. And how. ** Edited by Maroon Baboon at 8/6/2023, 4:24:56 PM

no incentive for them to pay FSU and Clemson SEC money when they have them now for ACC money. Only way I see those two schools in the SEC is if ESPN feels they would otherwise be in the B1G.

$$$. If ESPN is silently hoping the ACC falls apart so they can cherry pick wouldn't surprise me. It's what the B1G just accomplished with regards to the PACxx

The Missouris and Vanderbilt of the world. And although the ACC contract is terrible for us, maybe ESPN wants those liabilities off its balance sheet.

was the contract a bad one before the new BIG and B12 contract, or were you content?

dramatically changed the payout scale. [edit: didn't see tarheel below] Big 12's new deal (assuming it averages $32M/ team thru 2031) is irrelevant. Beginning in 2025, it is measurably less than the ACC primarily because of the ACCN. I know I've posted this before but the next key date is 2026. Is the ACC below market? We'll find out. If it gets a boost from the look-in and further separates it income wise from the Big 12, then it conceivably could add Big 12 teams in 2031 (also a look-in year). WVU? Cincinnati? UCF? But if ESPN wants the ACC to dissolve at the end of the TV deal in 2036; it will dissolve. Back to 2026, anything that looks below market opens the TV contract up for a bad faith legal challenge. And anything that jeopardizes the TV contract undermines the purpose of the GOR. ** Edited by daveinop at 8/6/2023, 5:25:08 PM

would at least keep us within reach of the B1G and SEC. But since then the B1G and SEC have both signed new media contracts that are much more lucrative. So by comparison it looks worse as time passes. ** Edited by tarheelblue at 8/6/2023, 5:06:14 PM

as time passes BUT, at least some portion of that difference is attributable to conference changes and just not a straight valuation bump. Both conferences added significant players(OU/UT and USC/UCLA), carriers/slots(BIG-NBC/CBS, SEC- bigger role with ESPN) that increases game inventory. The 2026 lookin will be a major tell. As in other things, the ACC timing was awful for the first lookin, between COVID and the original delay in Comcast carriage, making the 2021 lookin essentially a non-event. It is not guaranteed as far as ACC's continued existence but, were status quo to hold the ACC COULD benefit from TWO repricings before the others get to their next deal. That is not to suggest equivalence with either the SEC or BIG as those two now have 16 and 18 members while the ACC has 14.5. It does create the possibility that the gap might not grow as much as expected. The current reported numbers show a $10 - $20MM gap but, had the 2021 lookin been a full evaluation who can say the current gap would not be smaller? Then the question is likely more about the actual competitive disadvantage as opposed to the absolute magnitude of the gap. ** Edited by 2hhoop3 at 8/6/2023, 6:04:50 PM