Conference Realignment

[Dman374]

This unsuspecting guy right here holds all the cards. Not a single person on here knows what's in the media rights agreement between the ACC/ESPN... but he does.

His name is Nick Dawson, and he is the Senior Vice President of College Sports Programming & Acquisitions at ESPN. He'll be a key player in the fate of the ACC. Who had to give permission for the second tier Pac12 teams to join the ACC? This guy. Who lead the SEC/BIG 12 media rights deals at ESPN? This guy. Who had unconfirmed collusion allegations thrown at him when Texas and Oklahoma went to the SEC, and was specifically named in the cease and desist letter the former BIG 12 commissioner sent to ESPN? You guessed it, this guy. If Florida State leaves the ACC it's because he gave it the green light.

Let's go back in time just over a decade. On Sep. 6th, 2012 the BIG12 announced their media rights deal with ABC/ESPN/Fox. That deal at the time was great, and it didn't expire until 2024-25 season! What could possibly go wrong? Bet you see where this is going. So in August 2020 "reports" leaked about Texas and OU potentially joining the SEC. I'm sure there's nothing to see here folks. I mean common, our boy Nick here certainly didn't reach out to those schools directly, It was COVID, and they just wanted to play football! Oklahoma and Texas probably got out of bed one morning, had a nice cup of coffee, maybe a cinnamon bun, and decided to pick up the phone and talk about things. You know, just checking up on events, little smack talk, and coordinated exit to the SEC. It's what pals do! According to reports it was the schools who reached out to the SEC, not the other way around. Not sure if I believe that, but again, you see where I'm going. It's not like Nick Dawson wakes up one morning and picks up the phone and Calls his buddy Greg Sankey. He probably has a fresh cup of coffee, maybe a cinnamon bun, and talk about the little things. You know, like how's the wife and kids?, how are you parents?, can you give Texas and Oklahoma a call and work on bringing them into the SEC... I mean common guys.... normal things to talk about.

Why would ESPN cannibalize a media rights deal they already have with the BIG 12? That's ridiculous, and you shouldn't look any harder at that. Oklahoma and Texas just wanted to be part of the SEC, and you shouldn't draw any parallels to the current ACC situation at all. There's absolutely no reason to kill off the Long Horn Network. That was a huge success for ESPN! Just like the ACC network! Any reporting of ESPN not being happy about the ACC Network is fake news, and will make your eyes burn if you read such things.

This man loves the ACC. Just look at him. Does he look like the kind of man who would pull an unconfirmed lever in a media rights deal in 2026? Does he look like the kind of man who wants to start the process of absolving the ACC as we know it? Of course not. Does this look like a man who could coordinate such a thing? Of course not. He looks like a planner, and he plans for everything. He probably woke up this morning, had a nice cup of coffee, maybe a glazed donut, and a white board of which ACC schools end up in the BIG 12/SEC/BIG10. I mean common guys you have to plan for everything. With this current litigation going on you have to plan for any outcome. Nick is the kind of man who wakes up one morning, has a cup of coffee, maybe some French toast, and calls his friend Greg Sankey. They talk about the little things, You know, like what home projects you're working on?, how are your grandkids?, and following up on our your conversations with Tony Petitti on divvying up these ACC schools. There's nothing weird about that at all.

Hope you read the bulk of that in good sarcasm tone, but in all seriousness this man holds all of the cards. The FSU/ACC drama to me is all theater to me. Regardless of that court outcome, if the ACC exist past the current media rights deal, he'll be one of the most influential deciders of which schools stay in which conference. He's not the end all be all, but he'll have more say than Jim Phillips, Greg Sankey, Tony Petitti, or Brett Yormark. Networks run the conferences, not the commissioners.

"Yes... argue about FSU and the ACC and don't look at what we're doing behind the scenes" - Probably something he would say in a Sith Voice.

 

[RonJohn]

Agreed. It would take ESPN saying "We opt out" in 2027 for FSU (or any ACC member) to have a legitimate case to leave the GOR...BUT if the GOR self terminates with ESPN opting out in 2027, any lawsuit would be moot anyhow.

The GOR does not "self terminate" if ESPN is able to and does opt out in 2027. It does not have language that says that the contract ends if the ESPN agreement ends. There is wording that us non-lawyers have said looks like it could be argued about. It would take a lawsuit to decide an argument about it, so it would actually require a lawsuit to decide.

 

[WreckinGT]

If I own the Honus Wagner card and you want it badly enough to offer me $100 million, I don't have to accept your offer. I don't even have to counter the offer. I can just say no. But, that did not stop you from attempting to buy the card. I may have no intent to sell the card under at any price, but that doesn't mean I have tell you up front.

If two other Swarmers also want the card and offer $200 million, that is not a price war. I ain't selling. I am also not extorting any you Swarmers who want that card. I do not care that you promised your grandson he could have it. It is NOT extortion when one party refuses to sell property he owns to a second party.

Good grief. FSU's media rights are not a baseball card. This is the hyperbole augusta likes to ignore from everyone else for some reason. The ACC never paid anything for FSU's media rights. They aren't a tangible object to be sold and resold. They own the rights only to use them in a way that benefits FSU and other members of the conference. They can't sell FSU's rights to OnlyFans if they feel like it. If FSU believes that the ACC is not meeting their fiduciary responsibility, they are entitled to fight that try and break that contract. It might happen, it might not. If the ACC does choose to negotiate buying back media rights, they can't just charge 50 trillion dollars a year. This is nonsense. No courtroom is going to let a small corporation fleece a large federally funded public university out of billions of dollars. The ACC will set their price at some point. It will be reasonable. It will be negotiated from there.

 

[GTpdm]

I think you and others here are cherry picking which words you want to have meaning and which ones you want to ignore while pretending you have legal expertise.

 

[GTpdm]

@WreckinGT

An FSU trustee when the GOR was signed: "Another trustee, Mark Hillis, commented, "I was in concert with President Barron that this was the best thing that could happen. It ensures that we don't lose any members. Nobody can afford to leave now.""

Florida State Once Again Is Facing An Important Question. Should It Stay In The ACC?

The Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference’s media rights deals have blown through the $1 billion a year mark, leaving each ACC school with an average annual rights fee of $17 million, far behind their wealthier counterparts, according to a chart presented at the trustees meeting.

www.forbes.com

Hard to argue FSU didn't know what it was getting into...

Sounds like FSU should be suing their own BOT, not the ACC.

 

[CEB]

Good grief. FSU's media rights are not a baseball card. This is the hyperbole augusta likes to ignore from everyone else for some reason. The ACC never paid anything for FSU's media rights. They aren't a tangible object to be sold and resold. They own the rights only to use them in a way that benefits FSU and other members of the conference. They can't sell FSU's rights to OnlyFans if they feel like it. If FSU believes that the ACC is not meeting their fiduciary responsibility, they are entitled to fight that try and break that contract. It might happen, it might not. If the ACC does choose to negotiate buying back media rights, they can't just charge 50 trillion dollars a year. This is nonsense. No courtroom is going to let a small corporation fleece a large federally funded public university out of billions of dollars. The ACC will set their price at some point. It will be reasonable. It will be negotiated from there.

Analogies are troublesome… They never quite capture the reality of the situation (although I thought my fat guy in little coat analogy was pretty spot on… But I’m biased).

I agree that FSU’s media rights are not available for resale per se. I think that is what the GOR eludes to when it says it is for the purpose of fulfilling the obligations of the ESPN agreement.

However, FSU did pledge to the ACC their media rights for the term of the ESPN deal… Or 2036, as may be determined later in litigation. I believe FSU has a good argument to get out of GOR if ESPN goes away. BUT, Unless, and until ESPN goes away, FSU can’t just repurchase their media rights without at least acknowledging the damage they potentially do to the ACC and its members.
We don’t know what those damages potentially are, but it’s very reasonable to assume they far exceeded whatever “face value“ estimateFSU has put on it so far.

 

[WreckinGT]

View attachment 15768

I am pretty open about my lack of knowledge when it comes to legal documents. Im not trying to pretend im a lawyer. When someone starts criticizing others legal knowledge then I think its fair to ask for credentials to back up their supposed superior knowledge. Most of us are arguing based on what we have read whether its in the complaints or in other write ups by actual lawyers. When some who have no legal background to speak of start pretending to have higher knowledge than that, you kind of just have to roll your eyes a bit.

 

[cpf2001]

Good grief. FSU's media rights are not a baseball card. This is the hyperbole augusta likes to ignore from everyone else for some reason. The ACC never paid anything for FSU's media rights. They aren't a tangible object to be sold and resold. They own the rights only to use them in a way that benefits FSU and other members of the conference. They can't sell FSU's rights to OnlyFans if they feel like it. If FSU believes that the ACC is not meeting their fiduciary responsibility, they are entitled to fight that try and break that contract. It might happen, it might not. If the ACC does choose to negotiate buying back media rights, they can't just charge 50 trillion dollars a year. This is nonsense. No courtroom is going to let a small corporation fleece a large federally funded public university out of billions of dollars. The ACC will set their price at some point. It will be reasonable. It will be negotiated from there.

Rights are transferred all the time for non-tangible media "property". Taylor Swift's re-recording of all her old albums is a pretty solid contemporary example of how hard it can be to win a "I think the conditions you're putting on selling me back my rights are too onerous" dispute. She had to just go around them instead. And that's for a deal she signed as a minor. Streaming services recently deciding to completely pull shows and movies from their platform rather than pay the contractual royalties is another example of unintended consequences of such a deal that backfired for the creators.

It's not clear where a "fiduciary responsibility" argument for FSU would come from, there doesn't appear to be such a condition in the contract. Claiming lack of consideration would get a lot easier if ESPN opts out, as rumored is possible. Claiming fraud is another possibility for voiding the contract, it will be very interesting to see if there's anything damning about material misrepresentation for the whole Raycom rumors. There's possibly also a claim of "we were led to believe it would be a matter of $, not an impossibility" that's potentially supported by the quote from the time that's been posted here about "nobody could afford to leave" instead of it would be impossible to leave. But they'd also probably need to have much more damning evidence about that if the language of the contract provides no such provision. And they'd want to fire and go after their own lawyers in that case too.

 

[CEB]

This unsuspecting guy right here holds all the cards. Not a single person on here knows what's in the media rights agreement between the ACC/ESPN... but he does.

His name is Nick Dawson, and he is the Senior Vice President of College Sports Programming & Acquisitions at ESPN. He'll be a key player in the fate of the ACC. Who had to give permission for the second tier Pac12 teams to join the ACC? This guy. Who lead the SEC/BIG 12 media rights deals at ESPN? This guy. Who had unconfirmed collusion allegations thrown at him when Texas and Oklahoma went to the SEC, and was specifically named in the cease and desist letter the former BIG 12 commissioner sent to ESPN? You guessed it, this guy. If Florida State leaves the ACC it's because he gave it the green light.

Let's go back in time just over a decade. On Sep. 6th, 2012 the BIG12 announced their media rights deal with ABC/ESPN/Fox. That deal at the time was great, and it didn't expire until 2024-25 season! What could possibly go wrong? Bet you see where this is going. So in August 2020 "reports" leaked about Texas and OU potentially joining the SEC. I'm sure there's nothing to see here folks. I mean common, our boy Nick here certainly didn't reach out to those schools directly, It was COVID, and they just wanted to play football! Oklahoma and Texas probably got out of bed one morning, had a nice cup of coffee, maybe a cinnamon bun, and decided to pick up the phone and talk about things. You know, just checking up on events, little smack talk, and coordinated exit to the SEC. It's what pals do! According to reports it was the schools who reached out to the SEC, not the other way around. Not sure if I believe that, but again, you see where I'm going. It's not like Nick Dawson wakes up one morning and picks up the phone and Calls his buddy Greg Sankey. He probably has a fresh cup of coffee, maybe a cinnamon bun, and talk about the little things. You know, like how's the wife and kids?, how are you parents?, can you give Texas and Oklahoma a call and work on bringing them into the SEC... I mean common guys.... normal things to talk about.

Why would ESPN cannibalize a media rights deal they already have with the BIG 12? That's ridiculous, and you shouldn't look any harder at that. Oklahoma and Texas just wanted to be part of the SEC, and you shouldn't draw any parallels to the current ACC situation at all. There's absolutely no reason to kill off the Long Horn Network. That was a huge success for ESPN! Just like the ACC network! Any reporting of ESPN not being happy about the ACC Network is fake news, and will make your eyes burn if you read such things.

This man loves the ACC. Just look at him. Does he look like the kind of man who would pull an unconfirmed lever in a media rights deal in 2026? Does he look like the kind of man who wants to start the process of absolving the ACC as we know it? Of course not. Does this look like a man who could coordinate such a thing? Of course not. He looks like a planner, and he plans for everything. He probably woke up this morning, had a nice cup of coffee, maybe a glazed donut, and a white board of which ACC schools end up in the BIG 12/SEC/BIG10. I mean common guys you have to plan for everything. With this current litigation going on you have to plan for any outcome. Nick is the kind of man who wakes up one morning, has a cup of coffee, maybe some French toast, and calls his friend Greg Sankey. They talk about the little things, You know, like what home projects you're working on?, how are your grandkids?, and following up on our your conversations with Tony Petitti on divvying up these ACC schools. There's nothing weird about that at all.

Hope you read the bulk of that in good sarcasm tone, but in all seriousness this man holds all of the cards. The FSU/ACC drama to me is all theater to me. Regardless of that court outcome, if the ACC exist past the current media rights deal, he'll be one of the most influential deciders of which schools stay in which conference. He's not the end all be all, but he'll have more say than Jim Phillips, Greg Sankey, Tony Petitti, or Brett Yormark. Networks run the conferences, not the commissioners.

View attachment 15767View attachment 15766

"Yes... argue about FSU and the ACC and don't look at what we're doing behind the scenes" - Probably something he would say in a Sith Voice.

Well, maybe tomorrow after a cup o coffee and some French toast, you can get old Nick on the Horn and put in a good word for the Jackets?

 

[WreckinGT]

Rights are transferred all the time for non-tangible media "property". Taylor Swift's re-recording of all her old albums is a pretty solid contemporary example of how hard it can be to win a "I think the conditions you're putting on selling me back my rights are too onerous" dispute. She had to just go around them instead. And that's for a deal she signed as a minor. Streaming services recently deciding to completely pull shows and movies from their platform rather than pay the contractual royalties is another example of unintended consequences of such a deal that backfired for the creators.

It's not clear where a "fiduciary responsibility" argument for FSU would come from, there doesn't appear to be such a condition in the contract. Claiming lack of consideration would get a lot easier if ESPN opts out, as rumored is possible. Claiming fraud is another possibility for voiding the contract, it will be very interesting to see if there's anything damning about material misrepresentation for the whole Raycom rumors. There's possibly also a claim of "we were led to believe it would be a matter of $, not an impossibility" that's potentially supported by the quote from the time that's been posted here about "nobody could afford to leave" instead of it would be impossible to leave. But they'd also probably need to have much more damning evidence about that if the language of the contract provides no such provision. And they'd want to fire and go after their own lawyers in that case too.

Do you believe that if ESPN declines the 2027 option, and the ACC sells the rights to Apple for 5 million a year per team that there would be no legal recourse for any members of the conference and they would just have to live with that for 10 years?

 

[stinger78]

I do not think the GOR will be broken until it expires in 2036. It requires a unanimous vote and, unless the requisite number of schools votes to disband the ACC and that kills the ACC as a legal entity, any team that leaves will leave their media rights behind until 2036. I don't see Wake Forest being asked to B1G/SEC, so they have zero incentive to vote to abolish the GOR. I'd posit that there's no way to release one of the schools from the GOR without invalidating the GOR, so I don't think that will happen.

So, I read you saying that the GOR is in force until 2036 whether or not sEcSPN exercises their option in 2027? The extension is not contingent on sEcSPN agreeing to extend the media package to 2036? This is what I've always considered it to be, but I easily could be wrong on that. If that is the case, then the unanimous signing of that extension document was truly a very bad move. Every team in the conference has grated their media rights for another 12 years not knowing what they will look like? If so, then WOW!

 

[cpf2001]

Do you believe that if ESPN declines the 2027 option, and the ACC sells the rights to Apple for 5 million a year per team that there would be no legal recourse for any members of the conference and they would just have to live with that for 10 years?

I literally said "Claiming lack of consideration would get a lot easier if ESPN opts out, as rumored is possible." I would expect to see a lot of challenges to the GOR if ESPN bails because there is a LOT of smoke in support of the "the schools signed this in order to get a specific ESPN media deal" position. And a claim "we will provide you exactly what is necessary to fulfill the [now-nonexistent] ESPN deal: nothing."

But that's very different than challenging it *without* ESPN backing out on some sort of more-vague "we think if the ACC was a better fiduciary we'd be better off" claim with no text in the contract as such. I think it's almost the opposite: there's enough in my mind linking the GOR and the ESPN contract that I think it would be nearly impossible to claim a breach of that deal if the ACC/ESPN contract still exists. If everybody believed at the time "this will make the conference strong and get us the TV deal we want for the next couple of decades" then the claim literally only seems to be "we changed our mind" which is... not a strong claim.

 

[RonJohn]

So, I read you saying that the GOR is in force until 2036 whether or not sEcSPN exercises their option in 2027? The extension is not contingent on sEcSPN agreeing to extend the media package to 2036? This is what I've always considered it to be, but I easily could be wrong on that. If that is the case, then the unanimous signing of that extension document was truly a very bad move. Every team in the conference has grated their media rights for another 12 years not knowing what they will look like? If so, then WOW!

Or the "option" claimed in the FSU filing isn't as onerous as the filing makes it out to be. We haven't seen the ESPN contract to read what "option" actually exists.

To me the reading of that phrase is not extremely clear. Is it the agreement itself, or only "the contractual obligations of the Conference expressly set forth" in the agreement? Lawyers would probably be able to decipher that better, and there is probably precedent regarding such language. It might be different depending on which jurisdiction it is litigated in.

The FSU filing had a lot of things in it that are misleading. The chart showing no payouts after 2026 is misleading. Any such chart in the ESPN contract would have dollar amounts shown there, instead of being covered up with a statement that there are no guarantees. The ESPN option may exist. That option might be as dire as the FSU filing describes it to be. But it might also be more benign and FSU is using hyperbolic language to over-emphasize their points. I seriously doubt we will ever actually know the truth, unless it is as bad as FSU describes it AND ESPN drops the ACC. Any other outcome and it will probably remain a secret behind and NDA.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

This unsuspecting guy right here holds all the cards. Not a single person on here knows what's in the media rights agreement between the ACC/ESPN... but he does.

His name is Nick Dawson, and he is the Senior Vice President of College Sports Programming & Acquisitions at ESPN. He'll be a key player in the fate of the ACC. Who had to give permission for the second tier Pac12 teams to join the ACC? This guy. Who lead the SEC/BIG 12 media rights deals at ESPN? This guy. Who had unconfirmed collusion allegations thrown at him when Texas and Oklahoma went to the SEC, and was specifically named in the cease and desist letter the former BIG 12 commissioner sent to ESPN? You guessed it, this guy. If Florida State leaves the ACC it's because he gave it the green light.

Let's go back in time just over a decade. On Sep. 6th, 2012 the BIG12 announced their media rights deal with ABC/ESPN/Fox. That deal at the time was great, and it didn't expire until 2024-25 season! What could possibly go wrong? Bet you see where this is going. So in August 2020 "reports" leaked about Texas and OU potentially joining the SEC. I'm sure there's nothing to see here folks. I mean common, our boy Nick here certainly didn't reach out to those schools directly, It was COVID, and they just wanted to play football! Oklahoma and Texas probably got out of bed one morning, had a nice cup of coffee, maybe a cinnamon bun, and decided to pick up the phone and talk about things. You know, just checking up on events, little smack talk, and coordinated exit to the SEC. It's what pals do! According to reports it was the schools who reached out to the SEC, not the other way around. Not sure if I believe that, but again, you see where I'm going. It's not like Nick Dawson wakes up one morning and picks up the phone and Calls his buddy Greg Sankey. He probably has a fresh cup of coffee, maybe a cinnamon bun, and talk about the little things. You know, like how's the wife and kids?, how are you parents?, can you give Texas and Oklahoma a call and work on bringing them into the SEC... I mean common guys.... normal things to talk about.

Why would ESPN cannibalize a media rights deal they already have with the BIG 12? That's ridiculous, and you shouldn't look any harder at that. Oklahoma and Texas just wanted to be part of the SEC, and you shouldn't draw any parallels to the current ACC situation at all. There's absolutely no reason to kill off the Long Horn Network. That was a huge success for ESPN! Just like the ACC network! Any reporting of ESPN not being happy about the ACC Network is fake news, and will make your eyes burn if you read such things.

This man loves the ACC. Just look at him. Does he look like the kind of man who would pull an unconfirmed lever in a media rights deal in 2026? Does he look like the kind of man who wants to start the process of absolving the ACC as we know it? Of course not. Does this look like a man who could coordinate such a thing? Of course not. He looks like a planner, and he plans for everything. He probably woke up this morning, had a nice cup of coffee, maybe a glazed donut, and a white board of which ACC schools end up in the BIG 12/SEC/BIG10. I mean common guys you have to plan for everything. With this current litigation going on you have to plan for any outcome. Nick is the kind of man who wakes up one morning, has a cup of coffee, maybe some French toast, and calls his friend Greg Sankey. They talk about the little things, You know, like what home projects you're working on?, how are your grandkids?, and following up on our your conversations with Tony Petitti on divvying up these ACC schools. There's nothing weird about that at all.

Hope you read the bulk of that in good sarcasm tone, but in all seriousness this man holds all of the cards. The FSU/ACC drama to me is all theater to me. Regardless of that court outcome, if the ACC exist past the current media rights deal, he'll be one of the most influential deciders of which schools stay in which conference. He's not the end all be all, but he'll have more say than Jim Phillips, Greg Sankey, Tony Petitti, or Brett Yormark. Networks run the conferences, not the commissioners.

View attachment 15767View attachment 15766

"Yes... argue about FSU and the ACC and don't look at what we're doing behind the scenes" - Probably something he would say in a Sith Voice.

Yep. This stuff doesn’t happen by accident. It’s all designed by people who plan. As an engineering group it amazes me so many posters don’t see it. FSU was out regardless of the injury - they would have used weak conference to keep them out. It’s the same reason we won’t see ACC teams ranked in the top 10 anymore. They can’t let them in the +7 group now.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Rights are transferred all the time for non-tangible media "property". Taylor Swift's re-recording of all her old albums is a pretty solid contemporary example of how hard it can be to win a "I think the conditions you're putting on selling me back my rights are too onerous" dispute. She had to just go around them instead. And that's for a deal she signed as a minor. Streaming services recently deciding to completely pull shows and movies from their platform rather than pay the contractual royalties is another example of unintended consequences of such a deal that backfired for the creators.

It's not clear where a "fiduciary responsibility" argument for FSU would come from, there doesn't appear to be such a condition in the contract. Claiming lack of consideration would get a lot easier if ESPN opts out, as rumored is possible. Claiming fraud is another possibility for voiding the contract, it will be very interesting to see if there's anything damning about material misrepresentation for the whole Raycom rumors. There's possibly also a claim of "we were led to believe it would be a matter of $, not an impossibility" that's potentially supported by the quote from the time that's been posted here about "nobody could afford to leave" instead of it would be impossible to leave. But they'd also probably need to have much more damning evidence about that if the language of the contract provides no such provision. And they'd want to fire and go after their own lawyers in that case too.

This just means that no one can afford to leave without their media rights because they would be on their own without compensation for their media rights, because someone else owns them. That's easy.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Using their position to overcharge FSU for their media rights in order to leave is extortion. Again. Not hyperbole.

Hyperbole.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

This isn't true. The cost doesn't change. It is whatever the ACC decides it to be. What goes down, I think, is the exit fee. If there's no media contract, then there's no exit fee because there's no earnings. I'm not sure The ACC can sell a single team their media rights back without invalidating the entire GOR. Then the ACC would collapse.

The exit fee would be less and you would only have to negotiate for two years of rights vs 12. The cost would definitely go down.

Edit to add: The above is theoretical. I think you are correct that the GOR holds until 2036.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Good grief. FSU's media rights are not a baseball card. This is the hyperbole augusta likes to ignore from everyone else for some reason. The ACC never paid anything for FSU's media rights. They aren't a tangible object to be sold and resold. They own the rights only to use them in a way that benefits FSU and other members of the conference. They can't sell FSU's rights to OnlyFans if they feel like it. If FSU believes that the ACC is not meeting their fiduciary responsibility, they are entitled to fight that try and break that contract. It might happen, it might not. If the ACC does choose to negotiate buying back media rights, they can't just charge 50 trillion dollars a year. This is nonsense. No courtroom is going to let a small corporation fleece a large federally funded public university out of billions of dollars. The ACC will set their price at some point. It will be reasonable. It will be negotiated from there.

That's not hyperbole. That's an analogy.

 

[cpf2001]

Maybe if FSU is truly raising half a billion or whatever they should just leave once those wires land. The negotiations would probably start pretty quickly if it started to look like "ESPN is going to broadcast these Big10@FSU games with the 'ACC rights' for the next 12 years and the announcers will be dumping on the ACC the entire game talking about what a travesty it is that they wouldn't let them buy back the rights" etc etc. Real bad look for the ACC, and with FSU already out the door, the bad precedence of 'raise a bunch of money and peace out' is already set. Requires another conference to take them while it's in limbo, but that's not necessarily impossible. (And, of course, it requires them to raise a stupendous amount solely for the purpose of leaving.)

As it is, it seems VERY hard to try to get the ACC to not play hardball when you're not willing to actually pull the trigger yet.

 

[RonJohn]

Maybe if FSU is truly raising half a billion or whatever they should just leave once those wires land. The negotiations would probably start pretty quickly if it started to look like "ESPN is going to broadcast these Big10@FSU games with the 'ACC rights' for the next 12 years and the announcers will be dumping on the ACC the entire game talking about what a travesty it is that they wouldn't let them buy back the rights" etc etc. Real bad look for the ACC, and with FSU already out the door, the bad precedence of 'raise a bunch of money and peace out' is already set. Requires another conference to take them while it's in limbo, but that's not necessarily impossible. (And, of course, it requires them to raise a stupendous amount solely for the purpose of leaving.)

As it is, it seems VERY hard to try to get the ACC to not play hardball when you're not willing to actually pull the trigger yet.

If they can raise $500 million, then they will have more money than UF, even with UF receiving more media money. Raise $500 million and keep the ACC media payouts would be a huge boon for FSU financially.

Looking at the numbers comparing FSU to Ohio State (The top revenue school in 2022), FSU had $90 million less in revenue. The conference media payout was a difference of $18 million. Even getting an additional $18 million would not put them in the same category as Ohio State. That would move them from #15 to #10. Still behind UF. Ohio State sold $41 million more in tickets. Ohio State had $21 million more in contributions. Taking out the difference in conference revenue, Ohio State still had another $21 million more in licensing revenue than FSU. The conference provided Ohio State $18 million more than the ACC gave FSU, but the Ohio State fans gave Ohio State $83 million more than FSU fans gave FSU. I have said this about GT in the past: To be on par with the top teams in revenue, FSU needs to get more support from their fans. FSU is staring down a molehill while there is a mountain in their path. (my shot at hyperbole)