Paul Finebaum: "Clearly the ACC is struggling right now"

Finebaum discussed the ACC's future one day after a key Florida State meeting

Author:
Jackson Caudell
Publish date:
Aug 3, 2023 3:10 PM EDT

In this story:

The number one topic in college football currently is conference realignment. Just a couple of years ago, Texas and Oklahoma announced they were moving to the SEC, and last summer, USC and UCLA shook things up yet again by announcing their move from the PAC-12 to the Big Ten. Now, Colorado is leaving the PAC-12 to go back to the Big 12 and they might not be the only school leaving what appears to be a dying conference.

The ACC was also in the spotlight yesterday because of a Florida State Board of Trustees meeting and the comments made by Florida State President Richard McCullough made it seem like Florida State is looking for a way out of the ACC:

"FSU helps to drive value and will drive value for any partner, but we have spent a year trying to understand how we might fix the issue. There are no easy fixes to this challenge, but a group of us have spent literally a year. We've explored every possible option that you can imagine. The issue at hand is what can we do to allow ourselves to be competitive in football and get what I think is the revenue we deserve?"

"This continues to be a very difficult issue. There's a lot going on in the world of conference realignment. My current assessment of the situation after very deep analysis is I believe FSU will have to at some point consider very seriously leaving the ACC unless there were a radical change to the revenue distribution."

This morning on ESPN's Get Up, college football analyst and radio show host Paul Finebaum spoke about the meeting at Florida State yesterday and what he thought about the future of the ACC and he was not optimistic:

"Clearly, the ACC is struggling right now and they are struggling because they have a TV deal that does not end until 2036. Meanwhile, you see the PAC-12 schools scrambling like roaches at night. The Big Ten has shown indications that it could add a few more and look, FSU and the president and the board yesterday in an unprecedented meeting saying basically, somebody come and save us and the most likely prospect is the SEC and and don't forget there are other schools in the ACC who are not happy. FSU is not the only bad kid in the kindergarten class. Clemson does not like it's position, North Carolina does not like its position, and Miami doesn't. That league right now, there is nothing they can do other than hope"

The future of the ACC is in doubt right now and it largely has to do with the conference and the growing revenue gap between them and the SEC and Big Ten. The grant of rights is a huge obstacle for any school looking to leave the conference and this paragraph from an article by Nicole Auerbach at The Athletic on ACC realignment sums it all up nicely:

"ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has acknowledged the league’s position relative to the SEC and the Big Ten and has hired outside help to find new revenue streams for a conference locked in to its media rights deal through 2036. What it would cost to try to get out of the ACC before that time is unclear; the exit fee alone is $120 million and there is also the issue of breaking the ACC’s grant of rights, which has not been challenged to date and is presumed to be airtight by most."

Things are changing rapidly in college athletics and the actions by Florida State and the other ACC schools looking to leave will certainly affect Georgia Tech in some way. How exactly is a mystery, but the ACC is on shaky ground right now.

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