ACC-Clemson-Florida State Settlement Does Not Favor Cal

The settlement between the ACC and Clemson-Florida State, which was reported on Monday and approved by conference presidents on Tuesday, has two impacts on Cal athletics, one favorable to the Bears and one not favorable.

The settlement will keep Clemson and Florida State in the ACC, at least for the immediate future, and that enhances the conference’s power and appeal to TV networks, which pay the big money to conferences. That helps Cal as a member of the ACC.

However, the settlement also lays out an uneven revenue distribution plan for member schools based on the success and TV ratings of each school’s football and basketball teams.

That works against Cal, which is already playing from behind because Cal and Stanford will receive only 30% of the ACC's media revenue distribution for their first seven years in the conference.

The details of the new uneven revenue distribution plan remain unclear, and you can look at Ross Dellenger’s Monday story for Yahoo to get the best information on the settlement.

The office of University Chancellor Rich Lyons had no comment on Tuesday regarding the settlement, but two things seem evident:

1. Football success and TV ratings will play a larger role than basketball success and TV ratings in the uneven revenue distribution.

2. Cal’s recent football history does not put the Bears in good position for those elements.

Here is a key excerpt from Monday’s Associated Press report on the settlement:

The upside could be $15 million or more for top-earning schools, while it could also result in a decline of about $7 million for others, the person told the AP.

Apparently bowl berths, top-25 rankings and College Football Playoff participation over a period of time will be used to measure teams’ football success for revenue distribution.

Cal has played in two bowl games the past five years and has not had a winning record since 2019. The Bears have never finished in the top 25 of the final College Football Playoff rankings and have not been ranked in the final AP top-25 since 2006.

The Bears’ TV ratings for football in their first year in the ACC were not encouraging.

Miami, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State had by far the best TV viewership among ACC football teams in 2024, well ahead of the other 13 ACC football teams. Miami was the top ACC team in TV viewership, according to a Nielsen report:

The Hurricanes averaged 2.24 million TV viewers per game, which does not rank among the top 10 football schools, but is way ahead of Cal. Statistics for Cal’s average TV viewership of its 2024 football games is difficult to obtain, but the best estimates suggest the Golden Bears averaged 270,000 TV viewers per game in its first season in the ACC. Miami's vieweshipt was more than eight times that of Cal.

By comparison, the top 10 college football teams in TV viewership in 2024 all averaged better than 4 million viewers per game.

Games televised by the ACC Network did not get a Nielsen rating, so it remains unclear how those games will be considered when determining teams’ viewership and revenue distribution.

According to Sports Media Watch, Cal’s highest-rated game of 2024 was its 39-38 loss to then-No. 8 Miami on October 5, with 1.92 million tuning it. Its second-highest-rated game was the Bears’ 21-17 win over Auburn on September 7, which had a viewership of 1.12 million.

At the other end was the Bears’ 44-7 victory over Oregon State on October 26, which had 183,000 TV viewers.

Cal does not play any of the top four 2024 ACC viewership teams in 2025, and its nonconference schedule includes Oregon State, Texas Southern, Minnesota and San Diego State. The Bears are trying to schedule close to home for its nonconference schedule because of the heavy travel involved for conference games.

But Cal may need to consider playing higher-profile opponents in the future to enhance its TV viewership.