ACC ADs Introduce Uneven Revenue Sharing at Spring Meetings

The ACC's administrators are looking for new ways to keep pace with the SEC and Big 10.

Author:
Stephen Thompson
May 17, 2023 7:00 AM EDT

PITTSBURGH -- An otherwise largely quiet part of the college sports calendar has gotten a major jolt of energy this week as the ACC's Spring Meetings in Amelia Island, Florida have become the next stage of conference realignment's seemingly inevitable march forward.

There are new developments daily after reports surfaced that seven schools - Clemson, Florida State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State and Duke - are looking for ways to break the league's grant of rights agreement, which binds the schools to the ACC via media rights.

It gives the league permission to broadcast their games in exchange for revenue from the television partners and leaving would cost exit fees of more than $100 million, plus force them to forefit revenue for subsequent years. The current deal runs through 2036.

One of the biggest is a follow-up to that initial report. David Hale, who covers the ACC for ESPN, is on site and reported that one athletic director told him that every school has reviewed the grant of rights agreement to test it's ability to hold up against an exodus from the league.

Michael Alford, athletic director at Florida State, whose early foray into exiting sparked some of the uneasiness that has spilled into these meetings, told Hale the Seminoles are "thrilled to be in this league and want to stay here," and to that end, the member institutions are looking for solutions to the growing gap in revenue between the ultra-rich in the SEC and Big 10 and the rest of the Power 5 and college athletics.

So the athletic directors have discussed a change to the revenue sharing system that governs the league. As it currently stands, every school in the league shares revenue equally but some want the ACC to incentivize winning, so administrators have introduced multiple models that would give more money to the athletic departments that perform better. Hale reported that one athletic director told him they are close to a deal.

Alford added that this wouldn't be enough to completely close the gap between the SEC and Big 10 and the ACC, but it's a step in the right direction and would "allow you to be competitive."

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