that has always been the way this was going to end. Neither side wants to role the dice and neither side wants to be deposed. ** Edited by 133193Hokie at 2/17/2024, 10:25:15 AM

Story by Matt Baker, Tampa Bay Times “If Florida State wishes to regain control of the rights before the end of the term, it could attempt to repurchase them,” the ACC’s filing said. “But having to buy back a right which was assigned is not a penalty; it is simply a commercial possibility.” A commercial possibility that had not been raised previously in the back-and-forth in dueling suits filed in Leon County and Mecklenburg County (N.C.), where the ACC is based.”

i.e., the rights in question belong to the ACC so if FSU wants them, they'd have to buy them. Note that if, as FSU claims in its suit, the rights are worth more than they are being paid, that kind of works against FSU if they want to buy them.

Aiding the Expansion Big 12 and Realigning the Big Dogs Locked On Big 12, hosted by ESPN Central Texas personality Drake C. Toll Video: 8 minutes

It almost feels like the Big 12 wants the ACC to die. The Big 12 can't hold on to a commissioner. They have no conference TV network. Their TV market is half the size of the ACC's and maybe even smaller than that. Gone are Texas, Texas A&M, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Mizzou with Colorado making a return trip because they had nowhere else to go. Most of these Big 12 YouTuber's know less than me and I know little. Most have little knowledge of the ACC member institutions when they attempt to talk about realignment and tell viewers with confidence what ACC school is going where.

If one goes away with teams being poached, then this 3rd conference will eventually be edged out by the SEC and Big 10. Sure, they can still do so if the ACC and Big 12 are viable but think it will be harder. So why the angst with the Big 12 and ACC? The Big 12 isn't in the trusting mood. It is similar to the Pac. The Pac and ACC excluded the Big 12 from the Alliance. After USC/UCLA, the Pac directed all their ire at the Big 12 and looked down on the Big 12. ACC saw vulnerability too. Pac fans talked of a merger with the ACC and ACC fans talked merger with the Pac. Both never talked of aligning with the Big 12. Thus, Big 12 waited for the Pac to crumble and took advantage. Big 12 sees the ACC looks down on them and ACC has shown no intention of working together with the Big 12. The ACC has a worse bottom but they have the brands and thus are a stronger conference. The Big 12 had the brands too but were the first to get poached. But that helped in a weird way as they recovered with the best available teams. There is near zero good available teams now for the ACC to add. Thus, the Big 12 sits back and waits for the ACC to fracture to be the 3rd strongest conference even though it likely will end up with them being edged out down the road.

If you read articles and view YouTube videos from Big 12 posters and podcasters, they make it seem like all is well in the Big 12 and that the ACC is the Pac-12 which isn't true. There are a thousand things in my life that are more important than where Virginia Tech ends up conference-wise. No one outside of the media giants and FBS conference presidents have any control of what happens. We all just sit back and see what the powers do. I don't blame WVU fans for being resentful of the ACC for not taking them. WVU's academics are no different from Louisville's. I personally would've liked WVU over Louisville. So, if there is a Big 12 member that thinks the ACC looks down at them, it would only be WVU. The ACC hasn't snubbed their noses at any other Big 12 school. The ACC even took in SMU, a school the Big 12 didn't want. I agree that the ACC and Big 12 should form some type of alliance. Maybe schedule more football and basketball games. I also agree that both the ACC and Big 12 will be a distant third place from the Big 10 and SEC, no matter what happens to either conference (addition or subtraction of members) moving forward. I'd like to see the Big 12 let WVU, UCF and Cincinnati go to the ACC and replace them with Cal, Stanford and SMU in the Big 12 too, but Cal and Stanford are academic snobs and SMU isn't wanted. Maybe the Big 12 adds Oregon State, Washington State and San Diego State one day? ** Edited by Old Line Hokie at 2/17/2024, 11:45:24 AM

Most ACC schools do not want to join the B12 because of the massively increase in travel expenses. In VT's case, instead of a relatively short bus ride for it's non-revenue sports, it will have to fly to almost every B12 school. WVU is probably the only one within bus travel distance. We also love our network, and know if we join the B12, that goes away, so the majority of our non-revenue sports, and a significant percentage of our revenue sports will no longer be broadcast on a cable channel.

the top schools leave the ACC, where do you think the conference will land? With the 3 latest additions to your conference, and what is out there available, I think travel expenses might not be the top driver in this. What puts VT in the best position to compete nationally should be the driver in all of this. It all comes down to the contract - is it extended, negotiated, changed, or dropped? The GOR goes to 2036, but the ESPN contract doesn't. Something has to give. How that network plays into this will be interesting to me. Just how much is the network worth if it were to go to bid in the open market?

Even if ESPN wanted to sell the ACCN to a different network, ESPN would keep all the money from such a sale, and the new owner (say, for example FOX) would be contractually bound by the current ACCN contracts to pay 50% of the network's profits to the ACC just as ESPN does now. ** Edited by tarheelblue at 2/17/2024, 2:20:37 PM

in the open market - while it might not affect the conference or schools monetarily, what it is worth to ESPN is relevant, especially if they are considering not renewing the media contract.

Is ESPN+. There are a ton sports on it including volleyball, gymnastics, etc. They don't get revenue from it but their main deal is high while the ACC has their main deal and the ACC Network for revenue.

and ally with them against the B1G and SEC. The Big 12 lost their top brands first and had to rebound. The PAC-12 then lost their top brands and slowly imploded. The ACC is now likely to lose their top brands and there is a great deal of speculation about what will happen to the conference. Drake Toll believes that ESPN will kill the ACC which is somewhat of an interesting take on the situation. Other people believe that the ACC will get stronger after FSU leaves and the conference adds new schools from the west coast. IMO Drake Toll makes some good points like BC doesn’t bring the ACC the Boston market and Syracuse doesn’t bring the ACC the NYC market, but at the same time I am not sure I agree with his conclusion that certain ACC brands would be more valuable to ESPN in a different conference.