• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Conference Expansion: Stanford, California and SMU Join the ACC

Shake said:
Every fanbase has their share of assholes. I for one wish MD was still in the ACC. Loved Lefty, Gary Williams and Fridge…original member and would gladly trade BC, Lou, Miami and Cuse to have them back. Still believe State MD was the greatest basketball game ever played.
Click to expand...
The old 4 for 1 trade. Brilliant!
 
MichDeac25 said:
How is it possible that ESPN is a golden goose and yet ESPN is firing people left and right? ESPN is already owned by one major business, Disney, who thought the same thing people are saying Apple is thinking.
Click to expand...

$50 billion is a lot of reasons to let a jewel go, but ABC/Disney would be giving up a strategic piece at a key time when the economy is shifting to streaming. Bundling ESPN+ with Disney+ makes sense for many. Having ABC and its ancillary cable channels benefit from ESPN programming.

When I start to think about the various machinations and potential impact on the ACC, it raises interesting questions. Probably strengthens the case for Stanford.
 
Sco Deac said:
$50 billion is a lot of reasons to let a jewel go, but ABC/Disney would be giving up a strategic piece at a key time when the economy is shifting to streaming. Bundling ESPN+ with Disney+ makes sense for many. Having ABC and its ancillary cable channels benefit from ESPN programming.

When I start to think about the various machinations and potential impact on the ACC, it raises interesting questions. Probably strengthens the case for Stanford.
Click to expand...
Yeah, for families, the Hulu-Disney-ESPN+ bundle is great. think Disney and ESPN benefit each other.
 
saltydeac said:
How many votes do schools need to effectively terminate the GOR? is it only 6 or 8? If so I do wonder if FSU think they have the votes to be making this much noise or at least think the loud threat sways a couple on the fence to get out now before things start to fall apart after the pac12 debacle?
Click to expand...
The GoR is very simple, which is why it is so strong. It is only 3 1/2 pages long.

There is no mechanism in the GoR for a team to leave it (no exit fee type arrangement). It basically states by signing it you are granting you media rights to the ACC until the end of the contract (2036). That's it. NO exceptions.

As long as the ACC exists the GoR exists. Since a conference has to have 8 teams to be considered a conference for CFB purposes (and there is a 2 year window if you drop below that number to get back to it), there is virtually no chance the ACC is just going to cease to exist.

Also note the ACC by-laws are set up not to reward schools for leaving. If you decide to leave, you lose your vote. So only the schools remaining would get to vote on things like what you would have to pay to leave.

The other issue is where are all these teams that supposedly want to leave going to go. Most are greatly overestimating their worth. The market has pretty well spoken. Most P5 teams are worth in the $30-40M range. That is what ACC teams are being paid right now. The SEC commissioner has already implied in public comments that FSU Would not get an invite. SEC will only bring on a program they see as adding a full share to the league and they currently do not see any teams worth a full share. FSU is not one of the schools that has been vetted by the B1G and doesn't really fit the strategy they have been basing their decisions on (their strategy is based more on an NFL-lite idea of having a national footprint in large markets).
I think most schools that would try to leave the ACC would find they would get no better deal than WA and OR just received (The B1G would not have taken WA and OR if they had to pay them a full share). They are making decisions (or their fans are), based on the idea they are getting a full share if they go to one of the Big 2 - that is probably a very poor assumption. The money bubble appears to have burst and the media companies no longer have the money to spend to pay additional shares at the Big 2 level. That might change at some point in the future, but right now that is the financial reality.
The PAC basically failed because the media companies ran out of money to pay it. The B12 commissioner noted the B12 got lucky, when they jumped in front of the PAC and signed a new deal that effectively payed the same price per share as the their old deal they did not know it was going to be the last media deal available, but it turned out that way.
 
Deaconblue said:
So is ESPN undergoing one of those strip out as much as possible from the cost side operations? With the goal being to run super lean and look a lot more profitable for this year to get a better price? Then the new owners find out that some things that fired people did have to be done after 15-18 months, otherwise operations become dysfunctional.
Click to expand...
i.e. the private equity playbook
 
WakeFanAdam said:
Instead of Apple buying espn, why don’t they just buy Disney? Then they get espn thrown in. Like a toy in a happy meal.
Click to expand...
That's been rumored for years.
 
Forgive my ignorance. If the grant of rights states that if you leave, you give all of your media rights money to the ACC through 2036, could a team just leave and request no media money from its new conference? In other words, they’re not going to get to spend those dollars anyway, so could that be a way of trying to stick it to the remaining members of the ACC by not having to pay them through 2036?

No school would do this now, but as we get closer to 2036, I was wondering if that was a viable option as a means for a Florida State to weasel out of the conference early. “We agree to join your conference, and we will take no share of the media money until 2036 has passed. While costly to us in the short run, at least we got out of the ACC, and we didn’t have to send them any of the media money for it.” I’m sure this is too simplistic or has been ruled out as an option so I’m just curious as to why.
 
DeacDaddy said:
Forgive my ignorance. If the grant of rights states that if you leave, you give all of your media rights money to the ACC through 2036, could a team just leave and request no media money from its new conference? In other words, they’re not going to get to spend those dollars anyway, so could that be a way of trying to stick it to the remaining members of the ACC by not having to pay them through 2036?

No school would do this now, but as we get closer to 2036, I was wondering if that was a viable option as a means for a Florida State to weasel out of the conference early. “We agree to join your conference, and we will take no share of the media money until 2036 has passed. While costly to us in the short run, at least we got out of the ACC, and we didn’t have to send them any of the media money for it.” I’m sure this is too simplistic or has been ruled out as an option so I’m just curious as to why.
Click to expand...
they couldn't operate without revenue.
 
The ACC owns the media rights. When they team plays at home on television, that revenue goes to the Conference. The school doesn't get to choose for that to not be the case. The school could just choose not to play, but they can't determine that their media revenue doesn't go to the ACC.
 
deacondamo said:
they couldn't operate without revenue.
Click to expand...

I understand, but I’m trying to think of squirrely ways they could get around that. The private equity thing is one example. And so my question was, if they line up the private equity, wouldn’t they opt to take no media rights money because it’s only going to benefit the schools it has actively been trying to abandon.

Oregon and Washington were granted something like half media rights to join B1G, correct? As we approach 2036, couldn’t FSU take none, and make it up with infusions of cash for other sources? I just can’t imagine any school willingly passing their media money back to the ACC if they aren’t getting to enjoy it themselves. Hence the GOR strength. But I wonder what in the GOR prevents this precise scenario.
 
Tobacco Road said:
The ACC owns the media rights. When they team plays at home on television, that revenue goes to the Conference. The school doesn't get to choose for that to not be the case. The school could just choose not to play, but they can't determine that their media revenue doesn't go to the ACC.
Click to expand...

Got it, thanks for the clarification. I thought FSU just had to write the ACC a check in the equivalent amount of the money they were paid to be on TV.
 
NM after you response but here is what I said:

They don't own their media rights to give to anyone. The ACC owns their media rights through 2036. That money will go directly from ESPN (or whoever televises their games) to the conference. If they leave the conference, their media revenue will still go to the ACC. By leaving, they have already chosen to not receive the media money. the B1G is not going to pay them media revenue when they add zero because those rights are already own by the ACC. They can't launder their media money through other sources to get it back because IT IS ALREADY OWNED AND GOES DIRECTLY TO THE ACC. Changing conferences does not change who owns their media rights per the GOR.
 
I get it now so NO NEED TO SHOUT

Wake could really clean up in the short run if these schools actually leave in a move that is clearly against their best interests.
 
saltydeac said:
My guess is a big diff. is apple has a distribution channel which virtually most of the US carries in their hand, so Apple has a way to manipulate/push folks to ESPN even more than Disney could dream of and further increase viewership/eyes to ESPN and make more profitable. If Apple buys ESPN then ESPN likely becomes a default app on your iphone in the future.
Click to expand...

About half.
51cef55cf67734984410cdd464dbd7d1.jpg
 
Only way out of the GOR is to declare state sovereignty immunity and not allow the ACC to sue the state/school. That is how Texas Tech got out of paying Leech. I don't think it would go down well, and wonder if the GOR has an agreement to waive state sovereignty.
 
People who keep wondering about what's in the GOR, you know it is publically available, right? You can read it and determine what provisions exist for yourself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top