The question is not whether UNC would be a good fit for the Big Ten or SEC.
Of course, Carolina would be welcomed by the two leagues apparently on their way to forming super conferences. So would Duke and N.C. State for the same TV market reasons. So would Clemson and Florida State for their respective football prowess.
The question is would any of those schools signal the death knell for the ACC by jumping ship, assuming they could get out of the grant of rights agreement that runs through 2036. On paper, that means whatever new rights fees a departing ACC member gets from a new league has to be paid to its former conference.
Sounds good, but I would like to see just how that would be litigated in court and whether there could be a negotiated settlement.
As an original member of the ACC with Clemson, Duke, N.C. State, Virginia and Wake Forest along with since-departed Maryland and South Carolina, UNC has been the dominant member from ACC and national championships to top 10 finishes in the Director’s Cup for overall excellence.
The question is: does UNC leave for merely a matter of money?
The annual rights fees for Big Ten and SEC schools by 2029 is projected to be at least $100 million. The ACC’s is $60 million. That discrepancy along with the expansion of the college football playoffs to allow any number of teams from one conference would leave the ACC hard-pressed to qualify by having enough 5-star-laden teams.
As it has been since deregulation in the 1970s, TV is driving the train in football expansion. The Big Ten has its own cable subscription network and a mega-million-dollar deal with Fox. The SEC is about to sign the biggest college football contract in ESPN history.
How would the ACC match that with a conference that has more TV markets than either of those leagues but not nearly the same audience interest? New commissioner Jim Phillips is charged with managing the biggest decision since the conference’s inception in 1953:
Finding enough revenue to keep Clemson and FSU and making the members that don’t want to leave believe they can compete at the highest level in football and basketball. It may take something way out of the box.
Featured image via UNC
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