Rumor killer: SEC and Big Ten offers likely means top 8 ACC schools don't get new TV deal
Longtime college football radio host Greg Swaim doesn't see the ACC's top eight schools being able to renegotiate a new TV deal that'd give them a higher payout split between fewer programs, or a jump to the Big 12, given the likelihood the SEC and Big Ten will have offers for the ACC's pillars.
"While it's true that the top eight teams of the ACC could go to the Big 12 and significantly increase the B12 conference payout, but four of those schools will likely have more lucrative offers from the SEC and Big Ten," Swaim wrote.
Award-winning college basketball writer Dick Weiss proposed the idea of top ACC schools breaking free from the bottom of the conference to get themselves a higher payout.
"Interesting," Weiss prefaced before saying, "Administrators from seven schools-- FSU, Clemson, UNC, Miami, NC State, UVA and Virginia Tech-- have discussed the idea of 8 to 10 ACC schools voting to break away from )the) league, end (the ACC's) grant of rights with majority decision and creating a TV deal that would be just as valuable with less schools splitting the pot. Think BC, Cuse are getting nervous?"
All signs point to the ACC as we know it dying
What a horrible time to be Stanford, Cal, and SMU. Though the latter school didn't take payment for the first seven years of their ACC membership, the northern California schools chose the wrong conference in the realignment carousel.
Why? The ACC as we know it is going to die.
There's a clear divide between the top and bottom of the conference that's going to undermine the whole thing very soon. Clearly, FSU, Clemson, and UNC are not happy with what they're being paid, but notice Alabama, Georgia, and LSU haven't been complaining about the Vanderbilt or Mississippi State in the same manner.
It's because the ACC works for no one. It won't work for the schools being asked to sacrifice financially, and it surely will never work for FSU, Clemson, and UNC; especially when SEC and Big Ten invites and payouts are coming their way anyway.