[chrisk]

SMU, Stanford, and Cal are all willing to buy votes, that's what their position on not taking any payouts means.

The ACC contract with ESPN mandates ESPN pay out a new share for each team added to the ACC. Last year that figure was about $40M per school. So if three schools are added, that would mean ESPN has to pay the ACC $120M more per year. If you were to divide equally between the 14 ACC members, that would be about $9M per school more than they would get otherwise.

But, the no votes are the ones that must be moved and in particular Clemson and Florida State want more money than say Wake Forest. That seems reasonable, so the question is does Wake and Pitt and Syracuse take less of that $9M to give more of it to Clemson, FSU, and North Carolina? Perhaps the ACC is working out a way to distribute more money based on performance, I don't know, but there is no doubt SMU, Stanford, and Cal would be buying votes with their willingness to go without media rights payments as condition of getting invited to ACC.

This conference expansion is the only way the ACC can get more money for its schools. But I would imagine the new members can't go for 13 more years getting absolutely nothing for their media rights, so that $9M bonus can't last forever. Eventually even SMU will have to get paid, and there is no mechanism to get the ACC more money for 13 more years unless there is some provision in the contract that ESPN must pay more if its ratings increase.

Maybe ESPN will force a merger between the ACC and SEC in the long run, but the ACC schools seem to be in a very rough spot for foreseeable future. Kind of perplexing why anyone would want in now. But who knows, maybe they have a plan to rescue themselves.

One correction $120/15 (don’t forget ND - they receive a share) = $8 million/existing member.

I don’t foresee a merger with the SEC but I never dreamed that Stanford would consider the ACC as a conference home.  If we haven’t learned anything else recently, I think we learned that anything is possible.  

When all the TV media contracts begin coming up for renewal again in the early-mid 30’s, I think we shall see another round of upheaval.  If so, maybe that will be the time for a move towards two super conferences.

The Notre Dame share is incorrect. They receive about $11M from the ACC, less than 1/3 of a full share. They have their own contract with NBC for about $22M per year.

[chrisk]

SMU, Stanford, and Cal are all willing to buy votes, that's what their position on not taking any payouts means.

The ACC contract with ESPN mandates ESPN pay out a new share for each team added to the ACC. Last year that figure was about $40M per school. So if three schools are added, that would mean ESPN has to pay the ACC $120M more per year. If you were to divide equally between the 14 ACC members, that would be about $9M per school more than they would get otherwise.

But, the no votes are the ones that must be moved and in particular Clemson and Florida State want more money than say Wake Forest. That seems reasonable, so the question is does Wake and Pitt and Syracuse take less of that $9M to give more of it to Clemson, FSU, and North Carolina? Perhaps the ACC is working out a way to distribute more money based on performance, I don't know, but there is no doubt SMU, Stanford, and Cal would be buying votes with their willingness to go without media rights payments as condition of getting invited to ACC.

This conference expansion is the only way the ACC can get more money for its schools. But I would imagine the new members can't go for 13 more years getting absolutely nothing for their media rights, so that $9M bonus can't last forever. Eventually even SMU will have to get paid, and there is no mechanism to get the ACC more money for 13 more years unless there is some provision in the contract that ESPN must pay more if its ratings increase.

Maybe ESPN will force a merger between the ACC and SEC in the long run, but the ACC schools seem to be in a very rough spot for foreseeable future. Kind of perplexing why anyone would want in now. But who knows, maybe they have a plan to rescue themselves.

One correction $120/15 (don’t forget ND - they receive a share) = $8 million/existing member.

I don’t foresee a merger with the SEC but I never dreamed that Stanford would consider the ACC as a conference home.  If we haven’t learned anything else recently, I think we learned that anything is possible.  

When all the TV media contracts begin coming up for renewal again in the early-mid 30’s, I think we shall see another round of upheaval.  If so, maybe that will be the time for a move towards two super conferences.

The Notre Dame share is incorrect. They receive about $11M from the ACC, less than 1/3 of a full share. They have their own contract with NBC for about $22M per year.