The ACC ended a tense few days of spring meetings on Wednesday, and Commissioner Jim Phillips said all members of his league were “strongly” committed to one another.
Phillips’ comments followed several reports, including from The Athletic, that seven ACC members had reviewed the league’s grant of rights to see if they could be challenged in court, which could then pave the way for one or more players to leave the league for ACC before his media rights contract expires in 2036.
Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the seven schools were Virginia Tech, Virginia, Florida State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina and NC State and they met together and with attorneys would have to examine the document.
“I would classify it as a series of conversations, usually in small groups, about interpreting the grant of rights, the league’s bylaws and the options that may exist,” Babcock told the Times-Dispatch. “But as you know, the granting of rights has often been scrutinized by many people.”
Babcock said the talks were not as organized as many would infer from Monday’s reports and that several discussions included subsets of the seven rather than all seven combined.
“I think it was far from ideal when it came out, but it was a catalyst for real conversations and maybe slightly faster progress on the things we’ve been working on as the ACC,” Babcock said.
He and his colleagues emerged from their meetings with grievances raised, viewpoints clarified, and efforts tested to transition to a new revenue model that would reward teams for competitive success. Administrators at FSU and Clemson have been the most vocal in support of unequal revenue sharing in recent months. With a 12-team college football playoff slated for 2024, it’s possible that teams that go furthest in the postseason will be able to retain a larger portion of the league’s CFP revenue than their competitors who don’t.
After an eventful week in Amelia Island, Florida, nothing has changed for the ACC on an existential level; The league’s revenue gap compared to the Big Ten and SEC will only widen as those two leagues pay out $30 million more per school year over year. However, if there is no viable exit ramp for ACC members by 2036, tension and resentment could linger for quite a while.
The excitement surrounding the seven ACC schools taking the spotlight this week has raised an interesting question for the other major conferences: Could these schools be looking for new landing spots? And if so, could they be available before 2036? Could this possibility have a short-term impact on the enlargement decisions of these conferences?
Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff. The league still plans to complete media rights negotiations before adding new members. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Meanwhile in the Pac-12
Everyone in the west remains on hold while admins await the presentation of the league’s new media rights agreement(s). Multiple league sources have told The Athletic such deals are likely to be announced this summer, and Washington State President Kirk Schulz said the same thing earlier this month in a conversation with a Wazzu regent.
Schulz attributed the delay in negotiations to “the uncertainty in the economy, the layoffs in the tech sector and elsewhere.” … Obviously optics is something these people are very concerned about. … If you were to say the worst time in the last six years to negotiate a media deal, the last five months is probably pretty close to the worst.”
“I know our fans are frustrated,” Schulz told Cougfan.com on Friday. “I ask everyone to be patient, because as time goes on, more and more bidders come to the table, more and more interested parties and the ten schools are united in a way I have never seen before.”
For media companies that have little or no experience with college football rights, the negotiation process is different (and slower). ESPN also remains involved in the bidding process. If there were a game package on ION or The CW, according to a source familiar with the negotiations, it would be very small and intended for the lowest tier of offerings.
The league still plans to complete media rights negotiations before adding new members. It’s highly unlikely that Pac-12 will add more than two schools after USC and UCLA join the Big Ten in 2024, Pac-12 sources said. It’s also possible that the league could choose to stay with 10 members (provided it deters overtures from the Big 12), or just add one new member and operate as an 11-team league, much like the Big Ten did, after they added Penn State.
A key date—not necessarily a deadline per se, but an important marker—is June 30, 2023. If after that date San Diego State would attempt to leave the Mountain West to join the Pac-12 in the summer of 2024 , then if that were the case the exit fee (from about $17 million) would triple. Either the Pac-12 will make its long-awaited decision on the Aztecs by June 30, or San Diego State could not participate in the Pac-12 until fall 2025 at the earliest.
While it’s hard to speak in absolute numbers with the Pac-12’s media deal still in limbo, key administrators are optimistic that the deal is sufficient for the league’s survival and is relatively short-term and will include all current members with a contract and a subsequent donation. The term is between four and six years. Such an agreement would stabilize the league for a few years and allow members to prepare for additional poaching efforts ahead of the next Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC contract negotiations.
Why UConn is on the Big 12 radar
It’s certainly no secret at this point that the Big 12 are interested in knocking Colorado and Arizona out of the Pac-12. But as negotiations over that league’s media rights drag on into the summer and leaders of those schools continue to wait for a final offer, the wait will try Big-12 Commissioner Brett Yormark’s patience.
Yormark continues to evaluate its options for expanding the Big 12 into a 14 or 16 member conference in the future. As far as inviting new members goes, nothing seems imminent, but the freshman commissioner is doing his homework and UConn is one of several schools on his radar, Big-12 sources told The Athletic.
Since Yormark’s hiring in July, westward expansion has been an open goal, giving the Big 12 a stronger nationwide presence and TV inventory in all four time zones. But Yormark has also made it clear that if he sees goals that add value, he’s poised to double the Big 12’s lead as the nation’s strongest college basketball conference.
This spring’s UConn men’s basketball title fight has certainly drawn more interest from Yormark, and the school is seen as a potentially good addition for a number of strategic reasons. Men’s and women’s championship basketball tournaments are certainly high on the pro list, but so is the opportunity to establish a stronger presence in the New York market.
How would UConn soccer fit? The Huskies have had one of their best seasons in a long time. Jim Mora managed a dramatic turnaround in his debut season, winning six games and making it into a bowl game for the first time since 2015. The Huskies have not had a winning record since being named Big East co-champions in 2010 and played Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Since then, they’ve hired six head coaches and lost nine or more games in seven of their last nine seasons. But given the resources and platform that the Big 12 provide, could they become a more legitimate program by the end of the decade?
Yormark views these expansion prospects more from a professional athlete’s perspective, seeing things in terms of future upside rather than past accomplishments. He’s looking for programs to invest in by helping build their brands so they’ll ultimately make the Big 12 more valuable when it comes time for the next TV deal in 2031.
Sources within the current UConn league (Big East) and former homeland (AAC) have both expressed skepticism about the Huskies’ interest in moving to the Big 12. One of UConn’s greatest disappointments as a member of the AAC was the disjointed and dispersed nature of the conference, as well as the loss of traditional basketball rivalries in the Northeast. When the Huskies returned to the Big East in June 2019, they celebrated the announcement at Madison Square Garden with banners, signs and paraphernalia that made it clear they felt they were back where they belong.
“They just worked so hard to get out of a league where they had to play UCF and then get back into a league where they had to play UCF?” said a Big East source. “I do not see it.”
UConn’s athletic director David Benedict told CT Insider on Wednesday that future realignment decisions would be a “complicated issue” for the school.
“With the dialogue and commentary out there, I totally appreciate and understand people’s opinions,” Benedict said. “Where they’re emotionally connected is probably obvious when you see what people are saying and what their opinions are. But of course we look at it from a different perspective internally and there are many factors to consider.
“At this point, I’m not aware that there is a decision in front of me that I need to make. So what will happen in two days, in two weeks, in a month, in six months remains unclear. There is a lot of excitement across the country. There are many conversations. But ultimately you don’t know until you have to make a decision, and that’s not where we are at the moment.”
One challenge for Yormark is to achieve consensus among his board of Big 12 presidents and chancellors if he decides that UConn is part of his plan. There is some skepticism among league sources as to whether UConn would add value to the conference. Yormark has enjoyed strong support from his board since joining last July to pursue what he believes is best. It’s easy for Presidents and ADs to get involved with importing Pac-12 schools and the value they would achieve as full members. But going in that direction would likely require a lot more discussion and persuasion.
Another important conversation on this front: Can Yormark get its TV partners ESPN and Fox to support these moves and pay pro-rata for new signings that aren’t from Power 5 leagues? Or would schools like UConn be willing to take a reduced share just to be invited? This is where these possible steps get even more complicated. The Big 12 don’t necessarily need to expand this summer. But even if his Pac-12 goals get a good enough deal to stay there, Yormark could go in many directions to expand his league.
There is a belief among administrators both inside and outside the Big 12 that Yormark’s boundless agenda goes well beyond poaching a few Pac-12 schools or resorting to basketball pedigrees. He’s trying to position the Big 12 as the third-strongest power conference of the future — or perhaps the third and final power conference ever if instability within the Pac-12 and ACC leads to departures that break up those leagues. Yes, the most valuable schools would flock to the SEC and the Big Ten if invited. But what about the second stage? Schools like Louisville, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech or Duke might be eligible for the Big 12 if the dominoes fall like that. It might be worth waiting to see what’s happening elsewhere before making expansion decisions.
(Top Photo: Logan Whitton/Getty Images)