Realignment talk not going away

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

10 minutes ago, Texas Wahoo said:

To be clear, the Grant of Rights grants FSU's TV rights to the ACC through the length of the contract:  "That deal, per Steve Wiseman of The News and Observer, based out of Raleigh, North Carolina, 'irrevocably and exclusively grants to the conference during the term all rights necessary for the conference to perform the contractual obligations of the conference expressly set forth in the ESPN agreement.'”

The point of a Grant of Rights as opposed to an agreement to provide rights in the future is that the ACC owns those rights.  Thus, FSU would have to sue the ACC to get out of the contract, and if successful, ESPN would sue the ACC for failing to provide the rights promised.  This is all theoretical because I cannot imagine it ever going this far.

This is my understanding as well.  There is no way they are getting their next 13 years of TV rights back for $120 million:

 

 

[Magus Ossis 2800]

If I (and apologies if I do not) understand correctly,

1. FSU has granted broadcast rights to ACC

2. FSU would like to be able to leave ACC, presumably to join SEC

3. ESPN has purchased the broadcast rights from ACC

4. ESPN has purchased the broadcast rights from SEC

5. ESPN is potentially both the damaged party and the beneficiary should FSU bolt

6. ESPN is therefore somewhat in the driver's seat for telling FSU and ACC who goes where and when

[TKthunder2 4991]

30 minutes ago, Magus Ossis said:

If I (and apologies if I do not) understand correctly,

1. FSU has granted broadcast rights to ACC

2. FSU would like to be able to leave ACC, presumably to join SEC

3. ESPN has purchased the broadcast rights from ACC

4. ESPN has purchased the broadcast rights from SEC

5. ESPN is potentially both the damaged party and the beneficiary should FSU bolt

6. ESPN is therefore somewhat in the driver's seat for telling FSU and ACC who goes where and when

FSU could go Big Ten which add another layer, but yes ESPN could be on both side of the transaction.

Let’s say FSU is worth $60 million/yr ESPN could theoretically facilitate moving them from the ACC to the SEC and negotiate down the ACC’s deal and up the SEC’s deal so that they don’t lose money.

But the ACC would be losing that $60 million much of which went to subsidize Duke/Syracuse/Pitt/whoever so the ACC would take a hit and even if ESPN was good with this, the ACC would have damages.

[Thiefery 4995]

45 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

https://frankthetank.org/2022/07/22/dissolution-is-not-a-solution-to-break-a-grant-of-rights-agreement/
 

The dissolution angle has been thrown around here (I am guilty of it as well) but according to this guy it’s not that easy.

my head hurts from trying to read that lol..  Another thought in my head popped out.. with the ACC being 30..perhaps more millions of dollars behind the SEC and Big payouts..  Could FSU go to court, if it got that far, and argue that the current ACC deal will devastate the school if they stay through its entirety? 

[D3zii 3680]

FSU has one good season in the last 8 years and now they don’t know how to act!!! 
 

Edited February 24, 2023 by D3zii

[BurntOrange&White 39933]

If enough schools vote to break up and split then I think the GOR for the ACC can be bought out free. I remember reading a while back something about that. Let me find the article. 

[TKthunder2 4991]

34 minutes ago, Thiefery said:

my head hurts from trying to read that lol..  Another thought in my head popped out.. with the ACC being 30..perhaps more millions of dollars behind the SEC and Big payouts..  Could FSU go to court, if it got that far, and argue that the current ACC deal will devastate the school if they stay through its entirety? 

Not certain, you can argue anything but if the contract language is air tight then the reasoning doesn’t really matter.

That being said, I’ve always thought GORs weren’t as iron clad when you’re dealing with public institutions as they are with private institutions or individuals. Not sure about FSU but I always assumed Texas had massive leverage as they could have theoretically just walked away from the Big 12 and claimed sovereign immunity if they tried to sue.

The fact that we didn’t play that card publicly either means we did so only privately and didn’t want to rock the boat in the state since other Texas institutions were involved, or we were concerned about setting that precedent for future partnerships. Still if Texas was facing a budget gap like FSU is, I’d think they use it pretty quickly.

Edited February 24, 2023 by TKthunder2

[Big Frog II 511]

FSU shouldn't have signed a contract through 2036.

[Josef Pwag 1738]

7 minutes ago, Big Frog II said:

FSU shouldn't have signed a contract through 2036.

If FSU leaves and joins the SEC, does the ACC sue FSU in a state court in Tallahassee for its SEC TV money payout? 

 

[TKthunder2 4991]

1 minute ago, Josef Pwag said:

If FSU leaves and joins the SEC, does the ACC sue FSU in a state court in Tallahassee for its SEC TV money payout? 

 

They would likely sue ESPN/SEC/FSU for broadcasting rights they didn’t own.

Also ACC in based out of NC so I assume they’d file in court there.

But yes that’s the thing I’ve always wondered about the GOR, how do you enforce them on a State entity?

[Josef Pwag 1738]

3 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

They would likely sue ESPN/SEC/FSU for broadcasting rights they didn’t own.

Also ACC in based out of NC so I assume they’d file in court there.

But yes that’s the thing I’ve always wondered about the GOR, how do you enforce them on a State entity?

FSU would likely sue first in a Florida court....correct? 

[TKthunder2 4991]

1 minute ago, Josef Pwag said:

FSU would likely sue first in a Florida court....correct? 

I’m no lawyer, so perhaps you’re right, but what would they sue for?

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

6 minutes ago, Josef Pwag said:

FSU would likely sue first in a Florida court....correct? 

I'm assuming the ACC is based in North Carolina, which would mean there is diversity of parties, so the lawsuit would definitely end up in Federal Court regardless.

32 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

Not certain, you can argue anything but if the contract language is air tight then the reasoning doesn’t really matter.

That being said, I’ve always thought GORs weren’t as iron clad when you’re dealing with public institutions as they are with private institutions or individuals. Not sure about FSU but I always assumed Texas had massive leverage as they could have theoretically just walked away from the Big 12 and claimed sovereign immunity if they tried to sue.

The fact that we didn’t play that card publicly either means we did so only privately and didn’t want to rock the boat in the state since other Texas institutions were involved, or we were concerned about setting that precedent for future partnerships. Still if Texas was facing a budget gap like FSU is, I’d think they use it pretty quickly.

The purpose of a Grant of Rights is to avoid issues like sovereign immunity.  Florida State already gave their TV rights to the ACC - they no longer have those rights.  If FSU leaves the ACC and goes to another conference, the rights stay with the ACC and the ACC would be the ones with the rights to broadcast FSU home games.  FSU would have to sue to try to get those rights back, which would make sovereign immunity mute, because they would be the ones bringing a lawsuit.

Now in practice, who knows what would happen if FSU threw caution to the wind, left the ACC and joined another conference, and tried to broadcast the games through that conference's TV deal.  My guess is it would never happen because that conference would not want to get involved in a dispute like that.  This is the reason that the SEC was all 2025 is great until Texas negotiated their way out of the GOR a year early.  

[lemonandaturd 4285]

mute?  

[Uncle Nate 2097]

4 minutes ago, lemonandaturd said:

mute?  

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

12 minutes ago, lemonandaturd said:

mute?  

Whoopsie... 

[Vertigo 20285]

4 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Someone west of the Mississippi has to go east.  Might as well be them, since they've been playing UCF and Cincy for awhile anyhow.  And if they don't like it?  Go back to the AAC.

That's it. The Papadeaux in Ames has just been scrapped. 

[billfromlaketravis 11480]

If this whole SEC move has taught us anything, GOR have teeth. So Clemson and Florida State are probably going to take their medicine until 2035. 

[CustersDoctor 584]

[Vertigo 20285]

17 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

If this whole SEC move has taught us anything, GOR have teeth. So Clemson and Florida State are probably going to take their medicine until 2035. 

My guess is that when the SEC/B1G negotiate their next contracts in 4 or 5 years is when another big realignment move will happen. The new revenue would theoretically be enough to offset the damages for the ACC schools, plus you have way less years to buy out on the contract. If the B1G and SEC can poach 6 schools, then theoretically the B12 could swoop in for a couple and essentially dissolve the conference. 

[DFW Horn 6124]

57 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

That's it. The Papadeaux in Ames has just been scrapped. 

* Landry's and other seafood restaurants

https://www.fertittaentertainmentinc.com/landrysinc/

[hook me 2092]

1 hour ago, lemonandaturd said:

mute?  

[Hurtlocker 2212]

2 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

I’m no lawyer, so perhaps you’re right, but what would they sue for?

There isn't much to be honest.   What makes GoRs tough is they are not overly complicated, and the stuff like sov immunity is worked out in advance.   You can't sign if you can't grant, period.   So, FSU would have to pitch they were tricked in some way, maybe breach of contract if they thought they were promised something they weren't delivered, but when FSU and Clemson reupped what they wanted was to have an ACCN, which they got.   Now, it doesn't make any money, which isn't a surprise to anyone, but they did receive what they asked for.

Now someone could test a GoR, but it is not like they haven't been tested numerous times over the years.   They aren't new nor unique to conferences.   There are millions of these things dictating how many albums an artist's owes, to how Spiderman can get in the MCU, to what a production company is making for Netflix.   Chip and Joanna even have a giant one with Discovery's creation of Magnolia.   

In nearly every case, nullifying it is likely not an option.   It comes down to a financial transaction...a make whole.    For Texas and the Big 12, it was giving Fox a Michigan game to make up for a Red River.

The problem for FSU is, i don't think they have the leverage they think they do.   15% of the value of the ACC isn't like 15% of the value in the Big Ten or SEC.  It is closer to Big 12 money than SEC money.   So what you have left is one property worth its weight, ND, about four properties worth about $50m (FSU, Clemson, Washington, Oregon) and a mess worth between $25-40.

FSU's buyout I think is 3-4 years in the ACC's contract, so that's where the $120m came from (since its years of revenue it grows the longer the contract goes on as all have an inflationary growth year to year).   They'll need to make up the GoR, for 13 more years, which is valued at around $400m.     They're not going anywhere.   What they're going to push for is unequal post season revenue payout.   That's the part that people haven't spent yet and with the networks focused on that, no one will be paying more for the regular season for a while.

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Hurtlocker

[Hurtlocker 2212]

4 hours ago, Laxtonto said:

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Florida State AD: ‘Something has to change’ with ACC for Noles to win big

A trustee asked how much it would cost for the Seminoles to leave the ACC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Florida State Seminoles are one of the biggest brands in the ACC. But something needs to change. [ Tampa Bay Times ]

By

• Matt BakerTimes staff

 

Published 5 minutes ago

Advertisement

 

Florida State’s board of trustees meeting sounded like a series of warning shots to the ACC: Fix the revenue gap, or else.

“At the end of the day for Florida State to compete nationally, something has to change going forward,” Seminoles athletic director Michael Alford said.

By Alford’s numbers, FSU contributes roughly 15% of the value in the ACC’s media rights deal. But the Seminoles get 7% of the distributions as one of 14 full members of the conference.

That has caused a massive revenue gap between FSU and other big-name programs from Power Five conferences, as Alford outlined in Friday’s meeting. The gap between what FSU is set to make from the ACC and what teams from the SEC and Big Ten will make is roughly $30 million per year.

 

Alford said he and other FSU administrators are in “deep discussions” about how to close that gap until the ACC’s current media rights deal expires in 2036. Alford said FSU will look at windows if conference realignment significantly affects the Pac-12, for example. One possibility would be for the ACC to begin weighing its conference payouts toward programs that have more success or are larger brands.

Then the conversation got really interesting.

One trustee asked about a possible buyout figure if FSU wanted to leave the ACC.

The answer: roughly $120 million.

If FSU could make up $30 million per year, the trustee asked, does that mean the Seminoles would break even in about four years?

“Hypothetically,” Alford said.

This story will be updated.

• • •

Never miss out on the latest with the Bucs, Rays, Lightning, Florida college sports and more. Follow our Tampa Bay Times sports team on Twitter and Facebook.

 

The irony here is that FSU could end up being the third highest paid property in Florida in about two years.   The Big 12's deal is slightly bigger than the ACC's and shorter.

Now that has to sting.

[YGIFS 19450]

1 hour ago, Vertigo said:

That's it. The Papadeaux in Ames has just been scrapped. 

Does that family from DFW still own that restaurant group or was it all franchised out>  ?

[Uncle Nate 2097]

2 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Does that family from DFW still own that restaurant group or was it all franchised out>  ?

All of the Pappa's restaurants are from the family in Houston.

[Josef Pwag 1738]

To the lawyers here, or the people who are smarter than me and I am convinced they are lawyers, does the ACC leadership have an implied fiduciary responsibility to "stay competitive," in financial terms, with the other top tier conferences? Even if it isn't specified in the contract, if a reasonable person would assume it is the duty of the ACC conference leadership to allow conference members to stay competitive with the SEC and the Big, can an argument be made they violated the GOR by monetarily falling behind by such a degree? 

[Hurtlocker 2212]

7 minutes ago, Josef Pwag said:

To the lawyers here, or the people who are smarter than me and I am convinced they are lawyers, does the ACC leadership have an implied fiduciary responsibility to "stay competitive," in financial terms, with the other top tier conferences? Even if it isn't specified in the contract, if a reasonable person would assume it is the duty of the ACC conference leadership to allow conference members to stay competitive with the SEC and the Big, can an argument be made they violated the GOR by monetarily falling behind by such a degree? 

They're tasked with maximizing the value of the combined rights.  Just because FSU wants more, doesn't mean they're worth more.   Not much the ACC can do about that, especially when FSU agrees to the media contract.   Now, if the vote was 13-1 and FSU was the one voting no.....maybe?   But then why sign the GoR?

I don't think there is any situation here where FSU's fingerprints all over the creation of the world they live in.

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

14 minutes ago, Josef Pwag said:

To the lawyers here, or the people who are smarter than me and I am convinced they are lawyers, does the ACC leadership have an implied fiduciary responsibility to "stay competitive," in financial terms, with the other top tier conferences? Even if it isn't specified in the contract, if a reasonable person would assume it is the duty of the ACC conference leadership to allow conference members to stay competitive with the SEC and the Big, can an argument be made they violated the GOR by monetarily falling behind by such a degree? 

If there is a breach of fiduciary responsibility (and that's really hard to prove), the claim would be against John Swofford and possibly others in charge at the time of the signing of the media contract.  There is no way that getting out of the GOR is a remedy for such a claim.

[bullet 1597]

18 hours ago, LTbear said:

https://twitter.com/dennisdoddcbs/status/1628892683384020998?s=20

I read the whole thing.  I interpreted his comment as saying he had confidence the deal would be enough to hold them together, not that he knew that it was.  

[bullet 1597]

28 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

They're tasked with maximizing the value of the combined rights.  Just because FSU wants more, doesn't mean they're worth more.   Not much the ACC can do about that, especially when FSU agrees to the media contract.   Now, if the vote was 13-1 and FSU was the one voting no.....maybe?   But then why sign the GoR?

I don't think there is any situation here where FSU's fingerprints all over the creation of the world they live in.

Yeah.  Barron fought any idea of moving.  Didn't even want to hear it.  They had a board meeting talking about it.  We could have had FSU/Clemson to the Big 12 followed by OUTFSUCU to SEC!

[Hurtlocker 2212]

9 minutes ago, bullet said:

Yeah.  Barron fought any idea of moving.  Didn't even want to hear it.  They had a board meeting talking about it.  We could have had FSU/Clemson to the Big 12 followed by OUTFSUCU to SEC!

They could have been in the SEC years ago too, but Bowden wanted to play the easier ACC schedule to pad wins.

[Rimbo 25935]

So i've been hackin' up my old Retro Bowl to swap out NFL conferences for college conferences. Obviously, the AFC is now the SEC, and the NFC is now the B1G. So I'm wasting tons of time looking up hex codes for school colors and trying to find proper shots of the uniforms themselves; still need to look up the stadiums and weather to have it all REALLY accurate, but whatevs.

ANYWAY... I don't have what the divisions are like quite yet, so I made my own guesses.

Thoughts?

[ChiTownDoc 21154]

8 hours ago, Jabberwocky said:

 

[Gaffords 755]

5 hours ago, Texas Wahoo said:

I'm assuming the ACC is based in North Carolina, which would mean there is diversity of parties, so the lawsuit would definitely end up in Federal Court regardless.

The purpose of a Grant of Rights is to avoid issues like sovereign immunity.  Florida State already gave their TV rights to the ACC - they no longer have those rights.  If FSU leaves the ACC and goes to another conference, the rights stay with the ACC and the ACC would be the ones with the rights to broadcast FSU home games.  FSU would have to sue to try to get those rights back, which would make sovereign immunity mute, because they would be the ones bringing a lawsuit.

Now in practice, who knows what would happen if FSU threw caution to the wind, left the ACC and joined another conference, and tried to broadcast the games through that conference's TV deal.  My guess is it would never happen because that conference would not want to get involved in a dispute like that.  This is the reason that the SEC was all 2025 is great until Texas negotiated their way out of the GOR a year early.  

Now, with the fiasco that's going on out west, does the ACC decide to play ball with ESPN and workout some sort of deal to let a select few teams move out at a reasonable price? Or find themselves willing to risk what their value will look like in 2036 when these teams bail anyways and no one is all that interested in your rights ..

I could see ESPN reworking the contract for a little more money and a shorter term IF they believe the real money is in moving some of the ACC teams into the SEC. 

[Gaffords 755]

8 hours ago, Jabberwocky said:

 

All these leaks have to be coming from the PAC's head office.  If he hadn't made a two day visit to SMU that included a very public appearance, not to mention allowing SDSU to put the word out they expect an invite any day now, I would think they were coming from Oregon or Washington, but these are starting to feel like desperation to drum up any interest in the PAC's rights.

I think it's about time to put a fork in them

[TKthunder2 4991]

3 hours ago, Hurtlocker said:

There isn't much to be honest.   What makes GoRs tough is they are not overly complicated, and the stuff like sov immunity is worked out in advance.   You can't sign if you can't grant, period.   

Now someone could test a GoR, but it is not like they haven't been tested numerous times over the years.   They aren't new nor unique to conferences.   

In nearly every case, nullifying it is likely not an option.

You and me agree on all except the sovereign immunity part.

From what I can find Texas never sent the GOR to the state legislature. The only way you can waive sovereign immunity in this state is if the legislature signs off on it, which they do regularly for larger contracts.

GOR have been a norm in Hollywood true, but how many of those included a government entity? Yes Spider-Man was a transaction between Marvel and Sony but FSU’s is between the state of Florida and a private entity (ACC). I’d be weary of anyone that claims to have an iron clad contract against the government.

Again not a lawyer, so I can be completely wrong, but if anyone has case law where a GOR was used against a government entity I’d love to see it.

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

7 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

You and me agree on all except the sovereign immunity part.

From what I can find Texas never sent the GOR to the state legislature. The only way you can waive sovereign immunity in this state is if the legislature signs off on it, which they do regularly for larger contracts.

GOR have been a norm in Hollywood true, but how many of those included a government entity? Yes Spider-Man was a transaction between Marvel and Sony but FSU’s is between the state of Florida and a private entity (ACC). I’d be weary of anyone that claims to have an iron clad contract against the government.

Again not a lawyer, so I can be completely wrong, but if anyone has case law where a GOR was used against a government entity I’d love to see it.

Again, the rights have already been granted.  This is not an agreement to give FSU's TV rights to the ACC in the future; the rights are already given.  That is the entire point of a Grant Of Rights vs. just a normal TV contract that the members would agree to.  Sovereign immunity is the doctrine that a state cannot be sued without its consent, but the ACC does not need to sue FSU to get its TV rights, it owns them.

Also, note that a North Carolina appeals court ruled against Maryland's motion to dismiss based on sovereign immunity when the ACC sued to enforce the termination clauses in the ACC agreement, before there was a grant of rights.  I'm not sure why the result would be different here, even if we're just talking about the regular contract.

[Hurtlocker 2212]

41 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

You and me agree on all except the sovereign immunity part.

From what I can find Texas never sent the GOR to the state legislature. The only way you can waive sovereign immunity in this state is if the legislature signs off on it, which they do regularly for larger contracts.

GOR have been a norm in Hollywood true, but how many of those included a government entity? Yes Spider-Man was a transaction between Marvel and Sony but FSU’s is between the state of Florida and a private entity (ACC). I’d be weary of anyone that claims to have an iron clad contract against the government.

Again not a lawyer, so I can be completely wrong, but if anyone has case law where a GOR was used against a government entity I’d love to see it.

I really don't think it applies here, generally that's to protect the state from being sued.   It doesn't keep the government from monetizing its rights.  If that were the case no school in Texas would ever be or have been on TV.    GoRs are not new, not even in college football, we just never talked about them because they were rolling one years so the broadcasters would know exactly what to plan for, for that season.   You can't do that if a school can move its rights between broadcasters weekly.   The first big change was when the Big Ten signed a big GoR for BTN and then the B12 did it to restabilize after the 2010 realignment.   Now they are long term GoRs to decrease the risk to the broadcasters, which, in turn, provides more revenue to the conferences.   All of them have one now.

So, that's the difference here.  It isn't that the ACC has an iron clad agreement AGAINST a government or that SI had to be waived, it is that it has an iron clad agreement with a government, who sold something of value for a set amount of time and will receive it back at the end of that time.   If the government, in this case Florida, never received those rights back, then it would be on much less stable grounds.

But at the end of the day, at no point does the ACC need to sue Florida.    Florida has to sue the ACC, and that's why sovereign immunity doesn't apply

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Hurtlocker
Ha TW beat me by a minute

[camel at sea 589]

Hypothetically:  If FSU and Clemson were both willing to shell out $100M+ each to the ACC, and if ESPN was willing to keep ACC per-school payouts the same, through 2036, even after those two go, then the ACC probably agrees to release them from the GOR a decade early. 

Does ESPN really want FSU and Clemson in the SEC?  They both fit, and they're both big brands, but I don't know if they add enough to justify splitting the SEC pie into more slices.  I also don't know if there's enough left in the ACC if those two left to keep per-team payouts that high for another decade.  

[Hurtlocker 2212]

5 minutes ago, camel at sea said:

  I also don't know if there's enough left in the ACC if those two left to keep per-team payouts that high for another decade.  

Yeah, why would ESPN overpay by such a significant number?  

[Beantown Express 2.0 6559]

On 11/26/2022 at 2:43 PM, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

So take this for what it’s worth but I was just told by someone I trust that would know stuff like this that the ACC will dissolve in 2025.  Notre Dame will kick it all off and then the ACC will be gone.  Supposedly, FSU is having an internal fight over where to go.  The big money boosters want SEC and the coach/football program wants Big 10.  

I posted the above in November on this thread.  The source is my nephew who is a FSU alum and he was at the FSU-Miami game in a box with the big wigs for FSU and their Alumni Sports leadership (like the Longhorn Foundation executives I guess) and they flat told him all of this about the ACC and the infighting going on of where FSU should go.  Maybe what he was told is starting to happen.

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

9 minutes ago, camel at sea said:

Hypothetically:  If FSU and Clemson were both willing to shell out $100M+ each to the ACC, and if ESPN was willing to keep ACC per-school payouts the same, through 2036, even after those two go, then the ACC probably agrees to release them from the GOR a decade early. 

Does ESPN really want FSU and Clemson in the SEC?  They both fit, and they're both big brands, but I don't know if they add enough to justify splitting the SEC pie into more slices.  I also don't know if there's enough left in the ACC if those two left to keep per-team payouts that high for another decade.  

I don't see why either ESPN or the ACC would want that.

ESPN:  I mean, I guess the reasoning would be to keep Florida State and Clemson in an SEC broadcasted conference.  But they are already in an SEC broadcasted conference with an ESPN deal that is actually longer than the SEC's new deal by a couple of years.

ACC:  I see no benefit for them.  Each school keeps getting the same amount of money they would get and their conference gets markedly worse.

SEC:  Unless ESPN is going to pay the conference even more money per school, I do not see how the SEC agrees to this either - which just makes ESPN agreeing to it even less likely.

It seems like only FSU and Clemson win in this scenario.

[TKthunder2 4991]

47 minutes ago, Texas Wahoo said:

It seems like only FSU and Clemson win in this scenario.

Since COVID year FSU/Clemson account for 11 of the top 17 games in the ACC. UNC accounts for 4, ND/Pitt/NCSU/WF 2, Miami/Syracuse/GT 1.

You take FSU/Clemson/UNC out of the ACC and put them in the SEC those brands would add to the already dominant SEC ratings. Right now those teams get ratings while playing NCSU/Syracuse/WF/GT. Now image how good those rating would be against the SEC…well you don’t have to because the top 4 ACC rated games were against SEC teams and SEC/ACC games account for 7 of the top 17. Gives FSU/Clemson/UNC an SEC schedule and they’d have even more games with major ratings.

ACC isn’t top tier content. SEC is. If ESPN can make their investment in the SEC now and prevent opening the door for their favorite ACC brands to join the Big Ten I think they would push for it. With FOX owning the BTN and ESPN owning the SECN long term success of these conferences, means far more than their second tier investments.

Still the ACC would need to get something out of this. Giving the ACC a new contract to give them more per school than they currently get, which while still behind the SEC/B1G, will keep them up with the B12 and not put them in an embarrassing situation like we’re seeing with the P12. New contract in exchange for releasing the teams the SEC/ESPN desire and getting a fat exit fee might be enough.

[Hurtlocker 2212]

Eh, but ESPN has FSU/Clemson locked up solid for 13 more years at half the cost of the SEC deal.

Why pay FSU/Clemson twice as much, while paying the ACC 30% more (assuming their 15% comment is accurate), at a time when the brass is telling you to cut costs?

 

[TKthunder2 4991]

3 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

Eh, but ESPN has FSU/Clemson locked up solid for 13 more years at half the cost of the SEC deal.

Why pay FSU/Clemson twice as much, while paying the ACC 30% more (assuming their 15% comment is accurate), at a time when the brass is telling you to cut costs?

Yep, timing is not on FSU’s side.

[Rimbo 25935]

4 hours ago, Rimbo said:

So i've been hackin' up my old Retro Bowl to swap out NFL conferences for college conferences. Obviously, the AFC is now the SEC, and the NFC is now the B1G. So I'm wasting tons of time looking up hex codes for school colors and trying to find proper shots of the uniforms themselves; still need to look up the stadiums and weather to have it all REALLY accurate, but whatevs.

ANYWAY... I don't have what the divisions are like quite yet, so I made my own guesses.

Thoughts?

Art imitates life.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Rimbo

[Sandbagging Steve 982]

12 hours ago, Jabberwocky said:

 

[Texas Wahoo 3397]

20 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

Eh, but ESPN has FSU/Clemson locked up solid for 13 more years at half the cost of the SEC deal.

Why pay FSU/Clemson twice as much, while paying the ACC 30% more (assuming their 15% comment is accurate), at a time when the brass is telling you to cut costs?

 

Not to mention the fact that the SEC deal actually ends before the ACC deal, so unless this leads to the SEC and ESPN extending their agreement a decade before it ends (which is going to cost ESPN a fortune), those schools could actually join the Big Ten sooner in such a scenario, assuming ESPN is actually that concerned about that happening.

I can't imagine that ESPN is sitting up at night worrying about which schools will be in which conference in 13 years after all of their current deals are over.

[closetohumping 17442]

8 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

Yep, timing is not on FSU’s side.

Wonder if those rumors of them and Clemson joining had any truth?