...In some regards, the ACC is like this resort’s lavish façade itself: a projection of perfection, a shining example of a collegiate conference of old. It is a collection of mostly high-academic institutions with broad-based, successful athletic programs led by a commissioner who exudes confidence, a man carrying the banner of purity and decency in a money-hungry, dollar-chasing industry quickly evolving into a semi-professional business.
But within this oceanside luxury resort, among its carpeted hallways, inside its spacious convention space and around its marbled lobby bar, there exists grime. There is unsaid animosity here, uncomfortable squirming and awkward moments. There are eye-rolls, glares and even the occasional public barb.
Despite the jovial and optimistic nature of its leader, commissioner Jim Phillips, and regardless of its Olympic sports trophies and lofty graduate rates, the ACC is a fractured family — one growing more fragmented with each passing day.
Two of its most unruly children, Florida State and Clemson, are causing disruption as they work to leave the family behind. A half-dozen of their siblings wish they had the resources and wherewithal to join them. And another group, clinging to their morals and missions, are content, nestled quietly in their beds, avoiding trouble at all costs, an angry fist raised toward their misbehaving brethren.
Dad is trying his best to hold intact the group, steer the ship into smooth waters, salvage his family and protect it from the same affliction suffered by their cross-country neighbor: the Pac-12.
Back at one of their campuses, trouble brews. A third child grows restless...
..Every new change within college athletics exacerbates the revenue gap between the SEC and Big Ten and everyone else.
Take for instance, the
new CFP distribution model, where the SEC and Big Ten each get about 29% of the annual distribution. The ACC and Big 12 will receive around 17% and 15%. Or how about the new television contracts, where the SEC and Big Ten schools will soon earn in excess of $70 million annually with the ACC at least $20 million behind.
“With the CFP numbers, we’re now talking about being $40 million behind every year,” said Florida State athletic director Michael Alford.
The latest, impending change in college sports is the biggest in perhaps its more than 100 year history: a
costly new model permitting direct revenue sharing with athletes as part of a settlement of three consolidated antitrust cases.
One ACC school is budgeting to spend an additional $30 million annually in a combination of revenue sharing for current athletes, back damages to former athletes and an expansion of scholarships. Phillips described the impending settlement as a “seismic shift” in the industry and a decision that should be made jointly among the power conferences and NCAA, with each individual board expected to potentially authorize the adoption of the settlement next week.
For the ACC, the new model’s stiff tab is made more difficult to swallow when the competition is generating millions more...
