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Conference Expansion: Stanford, California and SMU Join the ACC

First, I don't see any more expansion of the Big 2 in the short term - both have had public statements by AD's basically saying they don't really plan on expanding anymore right now.
Keep in mind for them to expand it has to be a program that is additive to their contract, there are frankly very few programs left that would be additive.

Second, B10 is the SEC's equal from a financial standpoint, if not on the field. Their large universities with huge alumni bases give them large audiences to watch their games. That is more important to the media entities that provide the money than who wins and loses on the field.
This past season the Top 2 most watched programs in terms of average audience size were Ohio State and Michigan (AL was #3). Penn St was #4. The rest of the top 12 were UGA. OK, Auburn, Mich St, Notre Dame, Oregon, WI, and Neb.
So that is 6 B10 teams, 3 SEC, 1 independent, 1 B12, and 1 PAC12. The highest rated ACC team was Clemson at #19.
https://medium.com/run-it-back-with...ms-were-the-most-watched-in-2021-49ef4f315858
If you want to take a longer view (5 yr avg 2015-2019) it is a little different but alot of the same teams Ohio St, Al, Mich, ND, LSU, Auburn, UGa, OK, Clemson, Penn St, FL and WI.
https://medium.com/run-it-back-with...ams-bring-in-the-most-tv-viewers-efc03c689e50

I was thinking 2 weeks ago the Big 2 would break away and form their own division, i'm alot less confident in that now as that would not fit into what the content providers would want. It would be counterproductive for Fox and especially ESPN to have only 2 conferences with 32-40 teams total playing for a championship. The NC game between UGA and AL last year had only 22MM viewers, the second lowest total in the history of the CFP (behind only the 2020 COVID year). The more regionalized games tend to draw fewer eyeballs in the playoffs. Also, ESPN has no reason to try to undermine the ACC since it has 100% of its broadcast rights and it gives ESPN a ton of programming.

Dan Radakovich, the current Miami AD former Clemson and GT AD, was on the radio yesterday. He said no school is leaving the ACC anytime soon. That the schools and conference are focused on increasing revenue.
He also mentioned that the GoR puts the ACC in a position of strength.
He said that he has looked at the GoR a couple of times and he relies on the lawyers but that no one has walked through his door or called him with a way out of the GoR. He also mentioned that TX and OK looked at the B12 GoR for over a year and have not tried to get out of it early and that might mean something.

The fans of alot of ACC schools have been discussing whether the GoR is an anchor or a life vest. For now it appears it is the latter as it keeps the schools on the same page and looking at how to make the ACC the strongest it can be, rather than having schools trying to figure out how to leave.
 
Good post. Seems like the GOR is a life boat. We can stay together. If you want to get out and try to swim, you may drown.

The ACC needed a ship.
 
Here is a problem that not many are discussing: what happens if ESPN disappears? They are hemorrhaging money and will be in even worse shape after they make this dumb SEC deal.
 
What does disappear mean?

Seems like the worst-case scenarios are one of these three:

1) ESPN goes lean and cuts out original programming and goes back to airing a bunch of replays of games and Sportscenter across the channels
2) Disney sells off ESPN to a tech company for many many billions to offset losses elsewhere
3) ESPN moves a ton of content to ESPN+ and forces us to pay $10-20 a month

I'm not sure how either impacts the current deals.
 
has this plan that ESPN is going to buy the pac 12s media rights, kill the pac 12 network, and put all the pac 12 bball and football games on the acc network been discussed
 
Not today I don't think.
 
i think it makes sense and sounds like it's gaining momentum. theres no competition with the time zones, you'll get an ACC Network after dark essentially. ESPN gets a distressed asset on the cheap and bolsters their other asset. create some high profile cross conference match ups while you're at it.
 
I posted this 10 years ago, years after I first posted the idea. It's too little too late now. What would have been an innovation idea back in the late 00s is just another ESPN content grab now.

PhDeac said:
Yep. The loyalty to ABC/ESPN and Raycom hurts us. We needed to start a "Coast to Coast" Network with the Pac-12.
Click to expand...
 
Fuck Your Couch said:
has this plan that ESPN is going to buy the pac 12s media rights, kill the pac 12 network, and put all the pac 12 bball and football games on the acc network been discussed
Click to expand...

As long as it doesn’t impact the late afternoon and night ACC games
 
Fuck Your Couch said:
i think it makes sense and sounds like it's gaining momentum. theres no competition with the time zones, you'll get an ACC Network after dark essentially. ESPN gets a distressed asset on the cheap and bolsters their other asset. create some high profile cross conference match ups while you're at it.
Click to expand...

But don't the Pac-12 teams hate playing in that late window all the time (7pm-8pm local time for them), other than the Arizona schools in September when the weather basically forces them to? I get the impression they wouldn't be too psyched about increasing their start times in that window.
 
heres the main source of the story, a longtime pact 12 beat reporter, though this was mentioned in an SI report last week too. lots of interesting stuff in here:

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-pac-12-looking-for-a-friend

• I was told by one insider that if the partnership happens, the Pac-12 and ACC would likely still play a normal regular-season schedule within their respective conferences. The aim is to reach the soon-to-be-expanded College Football Playoff and make a pile of money. A crossover “championship game” between the winner of the ACC and the Pac-12 regular-season champ could help that effort. That event presumably would take the place of the traditional Pac-12 title game that is currently played in Las Vegas.

• That kind of early-December match-up would be attractive to ESPN, who might utilize the new event to make it rain cash for the restless ACC members. Also, the added game would give both conference regular-season champions an opportunity for one final “showcase” in front of the playoff selection committee.

• The second-place teams from each conference might also play head-to-head on the same day in a Las Vegas football double-header. This would create an additional inventory asset for ESPN, a windfall payday for both conferences, and one last-ditch chance for the second-place teams in both conferences to make a playoff case.

• Men’s basketball also presents some interesting opportunities for ESPN. The country never gets tired of seeing ACC powers such as North Carolina and Duke on television. With a “loose partnership” ESPN might schedule some lucrative, mid-season crossover games against the most attractive Pac-12 programs (See: Arizona, Oregon, etc.)
 
The top two ACC teams would play in the ACCCG then the same two teams would play the next week against the top two Pac-12 teams?

I'm not sure that would help either conference unless it's a way to compete with an upcoming SEC football tournament.
 
PhDeac said:
The top two ACC teams would play in the ACCCG then the same two teams would play the next week against the top two Pac-12 teams?

I'm not sure that would help either conference unless it's a way to compete with an upcoming SEC football tournament.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it would be top ACC vs top PAC during championship week and also 2nd ACC vs 2nd PAC with no ACCCG or PAC12CG

Not sure it's a great idea but it definitely wouldn't ACCCG then another game then a bowl
 
I can't see either conference going for top ACC vs top PAC and 2nd ACC vs 2nd PAC. That would increase the risk of one or both conferences not getting a team into the current system.
 
Yeah, this seems dumb to me. It certainly doesn’t help the ACC. Many years the ACCCG participants would be ranked higher than those in the PAC-12 so it definitely doesn’t boost a playoff resume.
 
That plan is horrible and the other three conferences will laugh at us.
 
RamblinRed said:
First, I don't see any more expansion of the Big 2 in the short term - both have had public statements by AD's basically saying they don't really plan on expanding anymore right now.
Keep in mind for them to expand it has to be a program that is additive to their contract, there are frankly very few programs left that would be additive.

Second, B10 is the SEC's equal from a financial standpoint, if not on the field. Their large universities with huge alumni bases give them large audiences to watch their games. That is more important to the media entities that provide the money than who wins and loses on the field.
This past season the Top 2 most watched programs in terms of average audience size were Ohio State and Michigan (AL was #3). Penn St was #4. The rest of the top 12 were UGA. OK, Auburn, Mich St, Notre Dame, Oregon, WI, and Neb.
So that is 6 B10 teams, 3 SEC, 1 independent, 1 B12, and 1 PAC12. The highest rated ACC team was Clemson at #19.
https://medium.com/run-it-back-with...ms-were-the-most-watched-in-2021-49ef4f315858
If you want to take a longer view (5 yr avg 2015-2019) it is a little different but alot of the same teams Ohio St, Al, Mich, ND, LSU, Auburn, UGa, OK, Clemson, Penn St, FL and WI.
https://medium.com/run-it-back-with...ams-bring-in-the-most-tv-viewers-efc03c689e50

I was thinking 2 weeks ago the Big 2 would break away and form their own division, i'm alot less confident in that now as that would not fit into what the content providers would want. It would be counterproductive for Fox and especially ESPN to have only 2 conferences with 32-40 teams total playing for a championship. The NC game between UGA and AL last year had only 22MM viewers, the second lowest total in the history of the CFP (behind only the 2020 COVID year). The more regionalized games tend to draw fewer eyeballs in the playoffs. Also, ESPN has no reason to try to undermine the ACC since it has 100% of its broadcast rights and it gives ESPN a ton of programming.

Dan Radakovich, the current Miami AD former Clemson and GT AD, was on the radio yesterday. He said no school is leaving the ACC anytime soon. That the schools and conference are focused on increasing revenue.
He also mentioned that the GoR puts the ACC in a position of strength.
He said that he has looked at the GoR a couple of times and he relies on the lawyers but that no one has walked through his door or called him with a way out of the GoR. He also mentioned that TX and OK looked at the B12 GoR for over a year and have not tried to get out of it early and that might mean something.

The fans of alot of ACC schools have been discussing whether the GoR is an anchor or a life vest. For now it appears it is the latter as it keeps the schools on the same page and looking at how to make the ACC the strongest it can be, rather than having schools trying to figure out how to leave.
Click to expand...

So he has looked for a way out.
 
Desirability Ratings: Measuring Each Power 5 School’s Conference Value

https://www.si.com/college/2022/07/14/power-5-desirability-rankings-sec-big-ten-acc

Wake Forest (#47 of 69) does about as well here as you could realistically hope (mostly due to academic ranking and recent football success).

I mean, you can argue about the metrics used and how they should be weighted, but it's an interesting exercise.
 
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