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College athletics is looking more like a three-ring circus these days.
Let’s see: the ACC started it all by trying to break the grant of rights that former commissioner John Swofford had all the remaining schools sign after nearly-bankrupt Maryland bolted like the Colts left Baltimore in the middle of the night.
Maryland’s Board of Trustees secretly approved the defection in a near-unanimous vote, with only former basketball star and Congressman Tom McMillen turning a thumbs-down in favor of cost-cutting suggestions.
Has anybody really missed the Terrapins, who seem assimilated to the Big Ten these days with new rivalries formed amongst member schools that at least have equaled playing Virginia, Duke and North Carolina in the good old ACC days?
Maryland is no longer hurting for money, which has led Clemson and Florida State to threaten leaving by filing lawsuits against the ACC they just might win in court rulings later this week. But where will the Tigers and Noles go?
What looked like a sure thing for Clemson and FSU is doubtful because the SEC doesn’t want schools with great football programs but small TV markets in states where it already has a large presence with the Universities of Florida and South Carolina.
Why share nearly a billion dollars of TV revenues with new entries that will be strong competitors to win the SEC but bring little else to the table? The league would rather have Duke and UNC, big brands in states where the SEC has no eyeballs — and would love to take over the great Blue Blood basketball rivalry.
Now, the onus is on the Big Ten, which supposedly only wants schools that belong to the snooty American Association of Universities (AAU) and has presidents who don’t want to share their enormous revenues with two academic misfits.
So the ACC will have decisions to make depending on Clemson and Florida State, who have unofficially been invited to join the rebuilding Big 12, whose TV revenues may be smaller than the ACC when new ESPN contracts are signed next year.
Then, of course, there are hedge funds and big corporations running numbers on what private equity might mean to the stability of the ACC moving forward as long as the Big Four schools and the two from Virginia are still in, attracting investors.
That influx of cash, which was never mentioned in the realignment of college athletics, could keep the ACC whole in terms of revenue distribution padded by outside money. What if Nike wants to own the ACC, put all members in their shoes and apparel and pay only the star athletes directly in NIL money?
Such an investment could create parity when it never looked possible before on playing fields and on the balance sheets of each school. The third ring of the circus.
Featured image via Associated Press/Karl B. DeBlaker
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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