Over the last several days I have watched several viewpoints on the direction of college football. All these viewpoints first of all point in one direction. Of course the obvious is money. I watched a youtbube
conversation between Mark Rogers and a discussion of a team in the ACC. The first take I took was about the future of the ACC. While behind the scenes the SEC was having serious talks with Oklahoma and Texas which were kept really quiet the other conferences had no idea of what was about to happen. To the credit of the SEC leaders it was kept quiet until it was leaked by the Houston Chronicle at SEC media days. By that time the deal with Oklahoma and Texas was a done deal. These talks had been going on since January. With that being said the money the SEC schools next to the big 10 were getting double the amount of revenue that the other conferences were getting. So with the addition of these two schools it is estimated that the SEC will get triple the amount than the other schools. The ACC is locked in to a bad media rights contract with ESPN that runs through 2036. As it was reported that if an ACC school would want to exit the ACC it would cost them $50m, plus forgeit their media rights revenue through 2036, which through that period of time would be around $500m. So needless to say there is no ACC school that can afford to leave, no matter what. That is a fact. So with that being said a lot of reporters are saying the ACC needs to add Notre Dame to the conference and then look seriously at UCF. UCF has a student enrollent of over 50,000 and is an up and coming d1 football program. West Virginia would not add much value to the ACC, but WVU is the only d1 school in west virginia but their ls no tv market to speak of. Like Clemson and Florida State they have no relevant tv market to add value. This is what the television experts are saying. When talks were going on with Oklahoma they tried to get Oklahoma State as part of the deal, but the power brokers in the SEC did not want Oklahoma State. Where Oklahoma State goes is a good question. Oklahoma State has a really good sports program, TBONE Pickens before he passed away donated over $500m to upgrade their facilities. Oklahoma State really would be a good addition to a conference, which one is a good question. With the arms race for facilities going on it was also mentioned that there are a lot of schools who still need to update a lot of their facilities but the ACC is stuck with this media rights contract that puts them behind. It is estimated that the Big 10 and SEC each school will receive triple the amount that the ACC schools receive from ESPN. It is imperative that the ACC gets Notre Dame to join the conference full time. Well it was announced yesterday that Notre Dame's football games will be broadcast on on the NBC Peacock network. Well guess what you have to to subscribe to Peacock to watch their games on their streaming platform. Adding Notre Dame and UCF according to a lot of television experts would be the best with West Virginia also being considered. After watching a video by Bob Stoops on you tube he did mention that he knew talks were going on as far back as January and that OU had to do what was best for them and that he hated that OSU did not get invited to the SEC. Where this leads is a question along with the PAC 12 who television revenue is only $28M per school. So adding the 8 remaining members of the Big 12 of whether the added value would be significant would be only slightly. I think I saw where it would add to a little over 35M per school a little lower than the ACC. Where this goes only time will tell. There are a lot of people in the ACC who are concerned that Notre Dame will keep their independent status and of course their annual media rights revenue will stay the same. So if that happens look for the ACC to add Cental Florida and West Virginia. Only time will tell. Lastly there are a lot of people concerned that the ACC football will go down the same path as the Big East basketball.
conversation between Mark Rogers and a discussion of a team in the ACC. The first take I took was about the future of the ACC. While behind the scenes the SEC was having serious talks with Oklahoma and Texas which were kept really quiet the other conferences had no idea of what was about to happen. To the credit of the SEC leaders it was kept quiet until it was leaked by the Houston Chronicle at SEC media days. By that time the deal with Oklahoma and Texas was a done deal. These talks had been going on since January. With that being said the money the SEC schools next to the big 10 were getting double the amount of revenue that the other conferences were getting. So with the addition of these two schools it is estimated that the SEC will get triple the amount than the other schools. The ACC is locked in to a bad media rights contract with ESPN that runs through 2036. As it was reported that if an ACC school would want to exit the ACC it would cost them $50m, plus forgeit their media rights revenue through 2036, which through that period of time would be around $500m. So needless to say there is no ACC school that can afford to leave, no matter what. That is a fact. So with that being said a lot of reporters are saying the ACC needs to add Notre Dame to the conference and then look seriously at UCF. UCF has a student enrollent of over 50,000 and is an up and coming d1 football program. West Virginia would not add much value to the ACC, but WVU is the only d1 school in west virginia but their ls no tv market to speak of. Like Clemson and Florida State they have no relevant tv market to add value. This is what the television experts are saying. When talks were going on with Oklahoma they tried to get Oklahoma State as part of the deal, but the power brokers in the SEC did not want Oklahoma State. Where Oklahoma State goes is a good question. Oklahoma State has a really good sports program, TBONE Pickens before he passed away donated over $500m to upgrade their facilities. Oklahoma State really would be a good addition to a conference, which one is a good question. With the arms race for facilities going on it was also mentioned that there are a lot of schools who still need to update a lot of their facilities but the ACC is stuck with this media rights contract that puts them behind. It is estimated that the Big 10 and SEC each school will receive triple the amount that the ACC schools receive from ESPN. It is imperative that the ACC gets Notre Dame to join the conference full time. Well it was announced yesterday that Notre Dame's football games will be broadcast on on the NBC Peacock network. Well guess what you have to to subscribe to Peacock to watch their games on their streaming platform. Adding Notre Dame and UCF according to a lot of television experts would be the best with West Virginia also being considered. After watching a video by Bob Stoops on you tube he did mention that he knew talks were going on as far back as January and that OU had to do what was best for them and that he hated that OSU did not get invited to the SEC. Where this leads is a question along with the PAC 12 who television revenue is only $28M per school. So adding the 8 remaining members of the Big 12 of whether the added value would be significant would be only slightly. I think I saw where it would add to a little over 35M per school a little lower than the ACC. Where this goes only time will tell. There are a lot of people in the ACC who are concerned that Notre Dame will keep their independent status and of course their annual media rights revenue will stay the same. So if that happens look for the ACC to add Cental Florida and West Virginia. Only time will tell. Lastly there are a lot of people concerned that the ACC football will go down the same path as the Big East basketball.
