Is the end near for the ACC?
As the Atlantic Coast Conference concludes its annual spring meetings, there's a general feeling of lost hope, though the commissioner keeps an optimistic tone
For those of us who grew up on Atlantic Coast Conference sports, especially basketball—though I appreciate football a tiny bit more—it’s hard to fathom the league, founded May 8, 1953 by seven Universities, is about to explode and be no more. Is the writing on the wall? Or at least in the courts?
The seven—Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest—added Virginia in December that year. With schools leaving (South Carolina and Maryland) and others joining (Boston College, Cal-Berkeley, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Southern Methodist, Stanford, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech), the ACC, when all memberships are finalized this summer, will have 18 members in all sports except for the outlier football program at Notre Dame.
Those damn Irish are simply selfish with their football money; no one is to blame except the other members of the ACC led by its commissioner at the time, all who allowed ND to keep football out of the ACC while playing five ACC football teams a year, giving the Irish a built-in schedule, and then letting Notre Dame compete for the ACC title in 2020 during COVID. And, including Notre Dame in for all other sports. Stupid moves all around. In 2020, the league could have forced ND to defecate or get off the toilet.
When basketball ruled the conference’s financial roost, the core of the ACC was just fine, but, as football grew to its prominence across the country which ignited the television interest and contracts, the ACC has lagged behind in annual per member income, reasoning up front why Florida State and Clemson are challenging the binding of the “grant of (media) rights” contract that flows through, we think, 2036, the year of our college money pit Lord: ESPN.
The “grants” contract is hidden, locked in a vault guarded by the Swiss Guard some place near Greensboro or Charlotte or who knows where. It can be visited, seen, and read but not taken out for public consumption. Florida State wants its Florida courts to dismantle the contract; Clemson’s South Carolina courts wants the contract sent to Clemson with viewing and distribution restrictions but to be used in court. The ACC, with offices always located in North Carolina, has North Carolina courts for appeal to keep it all locked up.
As the ACC falls further and further behind in developing more revenue—ACCN just ain’t getting it—for its members who raise ticket prices to make up some of the difference, ESPN has negotiated its way to exclusive rights to the Southeastern Conference while Fox Sports along with CBS and NBC (which also owns Notre Dame home games) owns the Big Ten. Those contracts are for shorter terms than what ESPN has with the ACC, a move then ACC commissioner John Swofford thought would be enough to keep the league together. He also determined expansion would do the trick. Duh!
Well, it seems it’s been a constant Halloween for the ACC but with just a few treats and lots of tricks, especially when it comes to money, a silly-huge difference in dollars that each team in the other two league are getting. This is why competing on the national level is most important to Florida State and Clemson, wanting to leave the conference for greener pastures but no one knows to where.
It’s not a sure thing for either Florida State and Clemson, but the two would be good fits for the regional SEC and a better footprint for the nationwide Big Ten. What FSU and Clemson might be over-looking is that each would be a small fish in the large ocean of both conferences. The list of conference opponents would immediately get tougher. And, depending on the broadcast contracts the two leagues have, there may not be more money to share, actually reducing annual revenue to each league team.
If the Seminoles and the Tigers get their way, look to North Carolina as the next to exit the ACC because that athletics department seems to be running at an annual deficit that could reach six figures, according to reports. (Maryland left for that reason alone.) It is my understanding that colleges in the UNC system, including North Carolina and NC State, cannot by law operate at a deficit. I could be wrong but that’s what has been preached to me for 50 years or more.
And, if UNC tries to depart, it’s likely the UNC Board of Governors with input from the North Carolina General Assembly would tell the Tar Heels and the courting conference, it’s a no-go unless NC State is taken along kicking, screaming, and crying its way to a bigger pay-day. Said the rabbit, “Please don’t throw me into that brier patch.”
So, consider Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina: The three athletic do-gooders that wanted to deny ACC membership to Cal, Stanford, and SMU wanting to get out before the other three get in.
NC State was part of that group until NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson lost his sense of direction and school and conference loyalty and changed his vote to “aye” instead of “nay” to more expansion of the ACC. Maybe he was thinking more about issues with NCSU’s Poe Hall, a den for developing cancer in some 200+ faculty, staff, and students who worked and studied in the building. Actually, the Poe Hall situation has deflected the ACC problems and NC State’s positioning to something much more important than college athletics.
Money, money, money!
Let’s face it. Florida State and Clemson want more money, and they believe they deserve it and they think they are the only hopes for the ACC to compete on the national level in football, against the behemoths of the SEC and Big Ten. North Carolina is not far behind in that thinking.
My guess, even if the television contracts were increased to the level of the Big Ten (the most dollars per school) and the SEC (the next most dollars per school), Florida State and Clemson would still want a bigger piece of the ACC pie—not equally sharing with their brethren—so they can attempt to dominate the league, primarily in football, play in the conference championship game, and annually make the College Football Playoff so they can get bigger and then demand more of the pie. Vicious cycle indeed.
As this drags on, if Florida State and Clemson get their way, the headline—Is the end near for the ACC?—may become reality.
From where sit and type, I hope not.
Anyway, so much for that commentary. See more below this Associated Press Photo of ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips who seems to be saying, “Look, I have 10 fingers!” (But not enough to count the number of ACC schools.)
Commissioner Jim Phillips Speaks
Here’s what Jim Phillips, the ACC Commissioner said at the recent annual meeting of the conference, as quoted in The News & Observer:
You always stay optimistic.
You have to stay optimistic. And you work through these things.
And again, I don’t know where it’s going to go.
But I continue to remain optimistic.
I always am optimistic about a really good ending on difficult situations and I won’t ever change until somebody else tells me differently.
Am I going to fight and protect the ACC? Absolutely, I have to do that. That’s my responsibility.”
I know you want to talk about Florida State and Clemson. It’s natural. I get it.
I stand by every word that I’ve said before, in previous settings.
It’s difficult, it’s disruptive, it’s harmful. But that’s the world we live in.
And they have the ability to do the things that they’re doing.
Memo to Jim Phillips: (Always) Put On a Happy Face?
"Put On a Happy Face" is a popular song with lyrics by Lee Adams and music by Charles Strouse. It was introduced by Dick Van Dyke in the musical Bye Bye Birdie.
Gray skies are gonna clear up
Put on a happy face
Brush off the clouds and cheer up
Put on a happy face
Take off the gloomy mask of tragedy
It's not your style
You'll look so good that you'll be glad
You decide to smile
Pick out a pleasant outlook
Stick out that noble chin
Wipe off that "full of doubt" look
Slap on a happy grin
And spread sunshine all over the place
And put on a happy face
Gray skies are gonna clear up
Put on a happy face
Brush off the clouds and cheer up
Put on a happy face
And if you're feeling cross and bickerish
Don't sit and whine
Think of banana splits and licorice
And you'll feel fine
I knew a girl so gloomy
She'd never laugh or sing
She wouldn't listen to me
Now she's a mean old thing
So spread sunshine all over the place
And put on a happy, happy face
Put on a happy, happy, happy face
Oh, come on bubby, smile its your birthday