It would be very difficult — and very expensive — to get out of the current ACC grant-of-rights agreement, but it appears that a few ACC schools may try to do so.
A group that includes Clemson, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Virginia Tech has met over the last few months, with lawyers, to determine just how unbreakable the current grant-of-rights agreement is, Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported.
It remains to be seen exactly how far these discussions have progressed, but it isn’t anything especially new. The ACC’s grant-of-rights agreement has been a hot button issue since the realignment rumors first kicked off with Texas and Oklahoma exiting the Big 12 for the SEC in 2021.
The Big Ten and SEC received $7 billion and $3 billion deals from CBS, Fox, and NBC and ESPN, respectively. Each member school from the two superconferences will rake in record television money.
Even the Big 12 inked a $2.3 billion deal with ESPN and Fox. The Pac-12, while it is still looking for a new TV deal, isn’t hampered its current situation like the ACC is.
Due to the ACC’s current TV deal with ESPN, the league is ultimately in a bind of its own. With 14 years remaining on a deal that runs to 2036, it will be tough for any program to exit the conference because of complicated grant of rights — any TV deal revenue belongs to ESPN through the duration of the deal, regardless of an exit — and exit fees in place. In the event a program exits the ACC, a buyout fee (which is upwards of $120 million) will need to be met, and the grant of rights will take away all TV deal revenue during the duration of the deal — 14 years currently. ESPN owns the TV rights, so it would be very, very hard to get out of that.
The exit fee and grant of rights equate to well over hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention ESPN’s chokehold over any potential broadcasting rights and the court battle that would ensue to escape such a situation.
But, under the current deal, the ACC’s annual revenue will continue to fall further and further behind the Big Ten and SEC, and it may come down to whether individual programs decide its worth it to fight out of the conference before the end of the deal for bigger potential paydays.
ESPN will be paying $300 million a year to exclusively broadcast SEC games, an astronomical jump from the $55 million CBS paid per year, and the Big Ten and Big 12 each received multi-billion dollar deals. That’s… a lot of money. And it will only help make those schools richer and richer, with annual revenue upwards of $100 million.
The ACC’s grant-of-rights agreement isn’t enviable but it might just keep the conference together for a while. It remains to be seen what will come of the self-named Magnificent 7’s continued talks, but if a split does happen, it will be drawn out and messy. And it will leave the remaining ACC schools — including Pitt — looking for a new home.
A group effort to exit the ACC is something to watch going forward.
Pitt should be in the Big 10 anyway. Hopefully they are really pursuing it.
H2P!!!
Pitt, WVU, and Louisville are going to wind up forming the Big XII East. Not ideal, but there are worse fates in the world.
money, money, money ….. too bad it is ruining college sports (and most other sports too). when will the networks get some fiscal discipline ?
as for the Mag7 … i wonder if the other schools were asked to participate and declined, or were they not even consulted. seems like it could generate some bad blood going forward.
Don’t let the door hit ya were the God lord split ya. Just bring the bags of 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰🤑🤑🤑