Florida State and Clemson are among seven ACC schools examining the conference’s rights agreement, according to several reports on the league’s projected financial position compared to other Power Five conferences. The ACC spring meetings will take place this week in Florida, marking the first time conference administrators have met since Florida State athletic director Michael Alford, in February; He called for a change For the league, equal revenue sharing concerns FSU’s ability to maintain financial viability with Big Ten and SEC schools through new media rights agreements.
action network And Picture supported sport The seven schools that have contacted legal groups in recent months to test the league’s rights are Florida State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Virginia Tech. The ACC’s exclusive media rights deal with ESPN runs through 2036, several years after the deal is finalized for the SEC and Big Ten. The SEC steps in 10 year media rights dESPN will be worth $3 billion in 2024, when it enters the Big Ten A seven-year contract With NBC, CBS and FOX worth more than $7 billion earlier this season.
Alford, speaking to the FSU Board of Trustees in February, called on the ACC to rethink its revenue-sharing approach, citing fears that FSU would lose $30 million annually from SEC and Big Ten schools. The athletic directors at Clemson, Miami and North Carolina later echoed Alford’s concerns as college athletics became increasingly angry about the resurgence. A pair of historic rivals will go to new homes in 2024 as Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12 for the SEC and USC and UCLA leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten.
“We have to do something because we’re a brand. We’re a very important brand, and we’re going to drive media value in this conference,” Alford said at the February meeting, which was streamed on YouTube.
More “open” discussions around the income gap are expected at the ACC’s spring meetings. Picture supported sport. But for any consideration — and only at this point — of the ACC schools movement, there are several hurdles that renegades can clear. The ACC schools’ exit fee is a reported $120 million, and when it comes to copyright infringement, Sports Illustrated reports that most lawyers describe the deal as “airless.”
It is possible to avoid those roadblocks entirely if the provision of rights breaks down, but the feasibility is unclear. No ACC schools are currently known to have contested the franchise.
It’s not just a walk away from the SEC and Big Ten for FSU’s athletic director for Alford and his comments, which set the tone for recent calls for changes to the ACC’s revenue-sharing model. Alford recently expressed fear. Even UCF, which will join the Big 12 conference in the coming months, may have a “better deal” than FSU after the Big 12 negotiated to extend its media rights deals with Fox Sports and ESPN.
The ACC is not the only power five league to be pressed for media rights demands. While the ACC issues have focused on the length of the deal, the Pac-12 has In addition to his contracts with Fox Sports and ESPN expiring in 2024, USC and UCLA were found to be out of an expiring deal that same year. sources told CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd. Earlier this month, ESPN dropped out of the picture as the primary media rights holder for a future deal with the conference.