What are GT and the ACC options as a counter move to SEC expansion

GTME87

GTME87

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Long time member (1987 ME Grad) - I rarely post - but would like your take on the following. (Also my mother died 5 years ago so please be careful with the usual mother references).

First off. Does anyone know/understand our contract with ESPN?
I think this is critical to how the ACC responds and I am not a lawyer - just asking and for discussion

1) I recall a "look-in", but what does this really mean? Could we come back to ESPN an say - the contract is not market value - give each school more money and not add schools.
2) If we add schools, this would allow the ACC to go back to the table with ESPN, but not sure how this works. For example, if we add West VA, ESPN could say this is fine, but we will only add $15 mil/year - which kills the deal. If ESPN under bids, can the ACC cancel the deal and go back to the market?

Big picture ACC options in no particular order
1) Get ND. Best case - but not likely to happen - 1 in a million -" so you say there is chance" (Dumb and Dumber)
2) No ND, Get WV (damn the academics). Go to 3 - five team pods. Not sure how much WV adds but opens contract talks with Swofford bad deal with ESPN
3) We take in select BIG 12 schools (4 or 5) and go to a POD. For example GT, Clemson, FSU and UM in one POD, NC schools another POD, etc.
4) If we cannot ND - do nothing
5) Merge with the PAC 12 for a 26 plus (up to 32) conference with PODs. Not to bore anyone with details, but with the right POD configuration you could play everyone in your POD every year and everyone else 4 years (8 year home and home). The Pac 12 and the ACC are low on the totem pole with regards to income, so combining would give them more value and negation power. If you did the pods correctly you would only have 2 or 3 max cross county trips for football. For no revenue sports, you retain the an East and West Schedule with local games and a championship game between east and west.
6) Similar to Item 5, but with the Big 10. As the B10 already has superior revenue, maybe would not happen.


Anyway would love your input ideas.
 
Get the old band back together. SoCon 2.0.

- Sewanne, VMI, Tulane, William&Lee
+ TX, OU, VT, FSU

WF, Duke, Vandy in all sports EXCEPT football.


For those who don't speak historical conference alignments.... this is more or less an ACC-SEC merger casting aside the ACC's northern flank.
 
Agree, plus I really do not understand the link anymore between sports and school rating. We let FSU and UL so we have opened Pandora's box. IF WV adds value we need to add them.
 
The ACC has to pull in ND. Period.

And my mom died not all that long ago but none of the mom jokes have anything to do with anybody's actual mom (hence the lower case m); it's all in fun, don't be a buzzkill.
 
GTME87 said:
Long time member (1987 ME Grad) - I rarely post - but would like your take on the following. (Also my mother died 5 years ago so please be careful with the usual mother references).

First off. Does anyone know/understand our contract with ESPN?
I think this is critical to how the ACC responds and I am not a lawyer - just asking and for discussion

1) I recall a "look-in", but what does this really mean? Could we come back to ESPN an say - the contract is not market value - give each school more money and not add schools.
2) If we add schools, this would allow the ACC to go back to the table with ESPN, but not sure how this works. For example, if we add West VA, ESPN could say this is fine, but we will only add $15 mil/year - which kills the deal. If ESPN under bids, can the ACC cancel the deal and go back to the market?

Big picture ACC options in no particular order
1) Get ND. Best case - but not likely to happen - 1 in a million -" so you say there is chance" (Dumb and Dumber)
2) No ND, Get WV (damn the academics). Go to 3 - five team pods. Not sure how much WV adds but opens contract talks with Swofford bad deal with ESPN
3) We take in select BIG 12 schools (4 or 5) and go to a POD. For example GT, Clemson, FSU and UM in one POD, NC schools another POD, etc.
4) If we cannot ND - do nothing
5) Merge with the PAC 12 for a 26 plus (up to 32) conference with PODs. Not to bore anyone with details, but with the right POD configuration you could play everyone in your POD every year and everyone else 4 years (8 year home and home). The Pac 12 and the ACC are low on the totem pole with regards to income, so combining would give them more value and negation power. If you did the pods correctly you would only have 2 or 3 max cross county trips for football. For no revenue sports, you retain the an East and West Schedule with local games and a championship game between east and west.
6) Similar to Item 5, but with the Big 10. As the B10 already has superior revenue, maybe would not happen.


Anyway would love your input ideas.
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My mother died last year and I would be offended if someone didn’t make a joke about her.
 
GTRules said:
My mother died last year and I would be offended if someone didn’t make a joke about her.
Click to expand...
My Mom (capital M) had a good sense of humor and would appreciate the totally inappropriate humor on StinGTalk.
 
I'm not sure why everyone is so sure that ND isn't a real possibility. With 16 team conferences and the number of in conference games that will be available or necessary the scheduling for ND will become much more difficult. Also, with 4 super conferences they will have much more reason to go with a conference champion only playoff.

With 4 16 team conferences that is 64 total teams. 8 teams in the conference championship games, 4 champions in the first rounds, and then a Championship game.

The 4 super conferences will have no reason to split the playoff money with an independent ND or non-P4 teams.
 
A couple of thoughts. ESPN is a partner here, not some evil empire that is intentionally lowballing us to öööö over the conference. It’s been a while since the last conference expansion to spit out the details, but my impression was that the ACC would rather have plenty of exposure partnering with ESPN and the development of the ACC network than bid up the contract with another provider. That said, if we’re losing stability because of dollars, the conference commissioner should bring this to the attention of ESPN who I would have to think has a vested interest in keeping the conference intact given the network and contract. But maybe it’s a naive take.

I also think ND’s independent days are numbered. If the goal is to maximize TV revenue, why would the SEC not eventually have a 10 or 11 game annual slate? ND will eventually be shut out if they don’t join a conference. Maybe it’s possible to grab USC as the 16th team to lockdown ND with marriage? I’ve been all for geographic continuity, but I’m open to breaking that for the right program, and I like the idea of watching ACC games all hours of the day.
 
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ND is contractually obligated to join the ACC if they join a conference (through 2027, I think). The need to be part of a conference is vastly different than even a year ago, as the future of the NCAA is seriously in doubt (at least as it relates to football). So the right persuasion should get them in with the ACC. WVU is a slam dunk, and if I'm the ACC commish, I don't care all that much about academics, but do care about quality of product on the field (which is good, not great), competition and rivalry (which they do add a lot, like the rivalry with Pitt and VT, fills in the geography), and what they add financially (which I don't think is much).
At this point, ACC shouldn't just try to keep up, but do the next step. Get ND and WVU, and find two more good teams. What would it take to get Penn State? How can we up the offer and steal OU and Texas from the SEC? Don't be thinking scraps from the Big 12 or poaching the AAC, think what will it take to compete with the future SEC?
 
MatatoGT said:
ND is contractually obligated to join the ACC if they join a conference (through 2027, I think). The need to be part of a conference is vastly different than even a year ago, as the future of the NCAA is seriously in doubt (at least as it relates to football). So the right persuasion should get them in with the ACC. WVU is a slam dunk, and if I'm the ACC commish, I don't care all that much about academics, but do care about quality of product on the field (which is good, not great), competition and rivalry (which they do add a lot, like the rivalry with Pitt and VT, fills in the geography), and what they add financially (which I don't think is much).
At this point, ACC shouldn't just try to keep up, but do the next step. Get ND and WVU, and find two more good teams. What would it take to get Penn State? How can we up the offer and steal OU and Texas from the SEC? Don't be thinking scraps from the Big 12 or poaching the AAC, think what will it take to compete with the future SEC?
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If a recent post is correct and we get more from ESPN based on states where we have teams, adding a team from Texas adds a lot more than adding WVU. This would also be the only reason I would take Cincy.
 
Take the University of Toronto and Notre Dame. Toronto has a huge alumni base and we would tap into Canada. Teach them our football...
 
midatlantech said:
Take the University of Toronto and Notre Dame. Toronto has a huge alumni base and we would tap into Canada. Teach them our football...
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savbandjacket said:
In the end, it doesn’t matter what states you cover if no one cares to watch the matchups.
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That’s putting it mildly. I think some of the posts forget we actually have to play the games after some of these terrible options are actually added. And that’s assuming the add itself doesn’t destabilize the conference. Go ahead and add UCF and be stuck playing them on the dream that one day that might turn into a power, meanwhile FSU and UM have all the more reason to bolt if the opportunity arises. And if FSU bolts, Clemson is bolting with them.
 
I do think the right add has to include ND. The landscape is changing, whether they’re feeling the noose tighten yet or not I’m not sure, but I’d definitely let them know that if the ACC implodes, so does the resting spot for a lot of their target rivals, their other sports, and the best shot they have at crafting a conference just for them among academic pier institutions and other respected brands. Do they want to park their other sports with the AAC if the ACC collapsed? Maybe it doesn’t matter to them, but it’s worth asking.

As it is, if they want a national schedule, we can still make that happen. The Pac12 has been benefiting off not having to compete against another nearby P5 conference. Reach out to USC and Stanford and ask them if they want to come play some football and not deal with the politics of the P12 going forward. If you can swing them to land ND, who knows what happens to conference payouts, you may have enough sway to bring in PSU at that point. It’s all a pipe dream, but these would be some big dick moves that would solidify the ACC as a stable super conference I think. We don’t have to be the top paying conference, we just have to remain in the same ballpark and carry enough clout, which is hard enough to do with a conference adding UT and OU to Bama, LSU and UF.
 
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