Conference Realignment

[rfjeff9]

I can see the ACC and the BE merging to become a 26-team basketball behemoth.

Making it about basketball, yet again - is a losing strategy. If ACC does that for basketball reasons, then it deserves everything that being relegated to a minor conference brings with it.

And at this point, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the ACC actually decided to go this route.

 

[stinger78]

Making it about basketball, yet again - is a losing strategy. If ACC does that for basketball reasons, then it deserves everything that being relegated to a minor conference brings with it.

And at this point, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the ACC actually decided to go this route.

TIC my man.

 

[rfjeff9]

TIC my man.

My bad.

Well it was early and I had only had 1_2 pot of coffee at that point.

 

[Techster]

This helps explain why UNC has turned down decades of the B1G and SEC's membership offers. It also complicates UNC's ACC exit in the future. Also, it explains UNC's ulterior motive in convincing GT to remain in the ACC back in 2012/2013. Note to ACC schools, if UNC is calling you, it's most likely calling to preserve its own interest.

In the end, if the state of North Carolina is willing to subsidize UNC's membership in the ACC, UNC may not be going anywhere. GT won't have that luxury in the state of Georgia.

 

[LT 1967]

Looks like FSU AD Alford is not too worried about making friends with ESPN. Perhaps FSU is counting on B1G rather than SEC? He seems to be blaming ESPN for leaving FSU out of the CFP. Or at least that ESPN new that they would be out before their ACC Championship game started due to ESPN's booth assignments.

 

[Techster]

Given we've already derailed this thread about stadium expansions I'm going to give my 2 cents. The SEC and B1G are going to be done with expanding after Clemson/Florida St leave the ACC. The ACC will add teams (ideally Oregon St, Wazzu, SDSU, and USF - contingent on an on-campus stadium) and continue to exist roughly on par with the B12.

My reasoning being that there are very much diminishing returns for member schools after adding Clemson/FSU and the SEC/B1G are already running into scheduling chaos and difficult SOS affecting playoff chances. To join the SEC and be a net positive for the existing schools they would need to bring at least $58m of TV value to the deal. ACC programs just aren't valuable enough fanbases to go after. The B12 is going to run into a similar problem - realistically adding ACC teams is a sideways move financially and a negative move logistically. It’s not worth it for them to be a $900m conference with 30 teams vs a $600m conference with 20 teams. So we'll end up in a rump ACC "conference of misfit toys" but it's fine to me as long as 1) ACC leadership gets replaced, 2) we keep a decent recruiting base and 3) we have a realistic path to a championship a la TCU.

The main thing is the ACC needs to jump on it much like the B12 jumped on the opportunity to add UCF, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, UA, ASU, CU, and Utah. The three we got are a start but aren't big enough to move the needle. ACC leadership especially needs to jump on Oregon St and Wazzu now before it's too late. Aside from Navy they are the only non-P4 teams in the top 50 most watched teams (OSU #20, Wazzu #43, GT is #52)

Interesting to note, if GT were in the B1G, we' would have been the 6th most watched team in B1G's 2023 lineup. If you include the new teams (USC, UCLA, UW, UO), GT would still rank #10. I don't think many of our own fans realize GT isn't in dire straights when it comes to viewership.

What college football teams are the most popular to watch on TV?

When it comes to college football ratings, teams in the big conferences are the ones that get the big numbers.

sportsnaut.com

Oh, GT would also represent the B1G's largest market in the Southeast. You think GT's viewership increases with teams like Michigan, USC, Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Washington, etc. on our schedule? GT is very close to averaging 2 million plus per game, and that would increase well past 2 million if B1G teams were on our schedule.

Also, look at the Average Network Viewership numbers. If anyone still question the importance of Linear channels in this whole game, there you go. Atlanta and GT still have a HUGE chip to play in the expansion game.

 

[apatriot1776]

Interesting to note, if GT were in the B1G, we' would have been the 6th most watched team in B1G's 2023 lineup. If you include the new teams (USC, UCLA, UW, UO), GT would still rank #10. I don't think many of our own fans realize GT isn't in dire straights when it comes to viewership.

What college football teams are the most popular to watch on TV?

When it comes to college football ratings, teams in the big conferences are the ones that get the big numbers.

sportsnaut.com

Oh, GT would also represent the B1G's largest market in the Southeast. You think GT's viewership increases with teams like Michigan, USC, Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Washington, etc. on our schedule? GT is very close to averaging 2 million plus per game, and that would increase well past 2 million if B1G teams were on our schedule.

Also, look at the Average Network Viewership numbers. If anyone still question the importance of Linear channels in this whole game, there you go. Atlanta and GT still have a HUGE chip to play in the expansion game.

The B1G is just such a weird grouping of teams in a superconference world. Overall the SEC has top-to-bottom the strongest media brand (Vandy the only possible exception) so it makes sense why they got pushed to the moon.

Meanwhile the bottom of the B1G can only be described as weak. The least-watched SEC team would be the 6th most-watched B1G team. I'd take most of the ACC including GT over Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers, and Maryland, and the numbers agree with me - GT has better TV ratings than all and better attendance from 2017-22 than all but Purdue...

 

[gte447f]

The B1G is just such a weird grouping of teams in a superconference world. Overall the SEC has top-to-bottom the strongest media brand (Vandy the only possible exception) so it makes sense why they got pushed to the moon.

Meanwhile the bottom of the B1G can only be described as weak. The least-watched SEC team would be the 6th most-watched B1G team. I'd take most of the ACC including GT over Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers, and Maryland, and the numbers agree with me - GT has better TV ratings than all and better attendance from 2017-22 than all but Purdue...

Agree. And GT fans on here want to see us play those lousy teams every year. Please no.

 

[Techster]

The B1G is just such a weird grouping of teams in a superconference world. Overall the SEC has top-to-bottom the strongest media brand (Vandy the only possible exception) so it makes sense why they got pushed to the moon.

Meanwhile the bottom of the B1G can only be described as weak. The least-watched SEC team would be the 6th most-watched B1G team. I'd take most of the ACC including GT over Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers, and Maryland, and the numbers agree with me - GT has better TV ratings than all and better attendance from 2017-22 than all but Purdue...

You're conveniently leaving out the upper half of the B1G who have the best viewership and fans in all of college football. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, USC, Washington, Oregon, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Nebraska. EVERY conference has bad teams no one cares for. ACC just has more than the B1G and SEC, and the numbers bare that out. Not only would being in the B1G help our viewership ratings, but also attendance. Outside of Clemson and FSU, the ACC struggles to pull viewers in. UNC, which is considered the flagship program of the ACC, has troubles with attendance and viewership. They are barely ahead of us in viewers.

GT fans really have a difficult time looking at the long view for the health of our program. No team has ever been in the situation GT has: Being a member of the SEC, and had the opportunity to join the B1G. The conversation for GT, and the uncertainty around the health of our program, would be totally different if GT decided differently in either situations.

I'm not sure some GT fans grasp the gravity of GT's long term future if we remain in the ACC.

 

[rfjeff9]

Agree. And GT fans on here want to see us play those lousy teams every year. Please no.

I don't care who we play. I just want to get PAID the same as those lousy teams.

 

[apatriot1776]

You're conveniently leaving out the upper half of the B1G who have the best viewership and fans in all of college football. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, USC, Washington, Oregon, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Nebraska. EVERY conference has bad teams no one cares for. ACC just has more than the B1G and SEC, and the numbers bare that out. Not only would being in the B1G help our viewership ratings, but also attendance. Outside of Clemson and FSU, the ACC struggles to pull viewers in. UNC, which is considered the flagship program of the ACC, has troubles with attendance and viewership. They are barely ahead of us in viewers.

GT fans really have a difficult time looking at the long view for the health of our program. No team has ever been in the situation GT has: Being a member of the SEC, and had the opportunity to join the B1G. The conversation for GT, and the uncertainty around the health of our program, would be totally different if GT decided differently in either situations.

I'm not sure some GT fans grasp the gravity of GT's long term future if we remain in the ACC.

The P2 consists of two conferences: the B1G and the SEC, that much is clear. And yes, all those ten at the top are 10 of the top 25ish programs in CFB. I'm just saying, there's an enormous divide between those at the top of the B1G and those riding their coattails. And it seems odd to build two "superconferences" and half of one of those two superconferences consists of, frankly, subpar teams. Doubly frustrating when we're fighting for program survival despite being a better brand than those subpar teams.

Purdue, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Miss St, etc. got a golden ticket into the NFL-lite because of their location. Unfortunately, we cashed in our golden ticket 50 years ago.

 

[stinger78]

You're conveniently leaving out the upper half of the B1G who have the best viewership and fans in all of college football. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, USC, Washington, Oregon, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Nebraska. EVERY conference has bad teams no one cares for. ACC just has more than the B1G and SEC, and the numbers bare that out. Not only would being in the B1G help our viewership ratings, but also attendance. Outside of Clemson and FSU, the ACC struggles to pull viewers in. UNC, which is considered the flagship program of the ACC, has troubles with attendance and viewership. They are barely ahead of us in viewers.

GT fans really have a difficult time looking at the long view for the health of our program. No team has ever been in the situation GT has: Being a member of the SEC, and had the opportunity to join the B1G. The conversation for GT, and the uncertainty around the health of our program, would be totally different if GT decided differently in either situations.

I'm not sure some GT fans grasp the gravity of GT's long term future if we remain in the ACC.

Please enlighten us.

 

[stinger78]

The P2 consists of two conferences: the B1G and the SEC, that much is clear. And yes, all those ten at the top are 10 of the top 25ish programs in CFB. I'm just saying, there's an enormous divide between those at the top of the B1G and those riding their coattails. And it seems odd to build two "superconferences" and half of one of those two superconferences consists of, frankly, subpar teams.

I would say close to half of both the B1G and SEC are subpar teams. Vandy, USCe, Arky, Kentucky, Mizzou, and MSU are all typically subpar. Yes, they have good seasons from time to time, but they typically are bottom-feeders. So are Indiana, N'western, Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, and UMD. Again, they do have good seasons from time to time, but normally are at the bottom of the conference. None of those teams are very distinguishable from the hoi polloi of the ACC. What the ACC needs is two more teams that will be in the hunt for the top 10-15 every season.

Miami was supposed to be that team, but they were approaching the end of their run when they were brought in. FSU has faded and now appears to have rebounded. Clemson has been the flag-bearer for a while but appears to be fading. Who knows though? VPI was there for a good ten seasons after joining the ACC but has faded. GT flashed under CPJ but fell off under TFG. NCSU is right there now but cannot seem to break through. UVA was good under George Welsh and UNC was good under Mack Brown 1, both back in the 90's. Can they do it again? Pitt, Louisville, Syracuse, and BC all have had their seasons, too.

 

[stinger 1957]

Interesting to note, if GT were in the B1G, we' would have been the 6th most watched team in B1G's 2023 lineup. If you include the new teams (USC, UCLA, UW, UO), GT would still rank #10. I don't think many of our own fans realize GT isn't in dire straights when it comes to viewership.

What college football teams are the most popular to watch on TV?

When it comes to college football ratings, teams in the big conferences are the ones that get the big numbers.

sportsnaut.com

Oh, GT would also represent the B1G's largest market in the Southeast. You think GT's viewership increases with teams like Michigan, USC, Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Washington, etc. on our schedule? GT is very close to averaging 2 million plus per game, and that would increase well past 2 million if B1G teams were on our schedule.

Also, look at the Average Network Viewership numbers. If anyone still question the importance of Linear channels in this whole game, there you go. Atlanta and GT still have a HUGE chip to play in the expansion game.

With us being AAU and the school making the commitment it has and is making, it is THE chip when it comes to the Big 10. Don't think it makes much difference with SEC.

There is stuff being passed around about some of the smaller ACC programs leaving the conference and along with Mike Krzyzewski's comments about the Big East and FB and a few other things I've seen being said is the ACC getting ready to cut itself down to a smaller number of schools that have history of being FB schools? Anyone else picking up on anything like this? The schools I've seen mentioned to leave are BC, Syracuse, UVA, Duke, Wake. I don't know, it could all be just BS talk except for the MK comments which were something along the lines of the BE needing to get more of it's present schools playing FB.

One of the things I've seen mentioned is ESPN would keep the money the same, spread over the lesser number of schools. When you look at the schools left it could be one heck of a CFB conference with lot's of outstanding games in a round robbin format. Do those 5 smaller schools want to get into the 20 million per year addn cost for player payment situation or get out now probably with the remainder paying something for them to do so? Just total speculation built off of the stuff I have seen mentioned above.

With ND wanting to continue to be independent, the remaining schools would be Miami, FSU, GT, Louisville, Pitt, VT, UNC, NCST, Clemson. This just my list, not seen this list anywhere else, although I have seen the schools leaving list more than once. Have no idea if there is anything to any of this, just throwing it out there to see if anyone else has heard anything like this.

 

[reckrider]

I have yet to see any reasonable evidence to convince me that SEC or B1G will ever add FSU or Clemson. SEC doesn't need either. And B1G Presidents seem pretty committed to AAU only schools and like big budget research schools. Neither team fit that bill, regardless if whether or not it is an official requirement. Presidents vote on B1G admission, not ADs or FOX. I think it is a bigger deal to them than the talking heads seem to realize. FSU fans seem to think they are about to gain AAU status but it is by invitation only, not some threshold they meet and suddenly they're in. From the recommendations they were given last year on what they needed to do, it didn't sound like a quick fix either.

I think SEC and B1G are done with expansion for the current media contract unless ND suddenly comes calling. Especially in the case of B1G.

Maybe FSU and Clemson should look at an exit plan where they become independent but hold onto a deal with the ACC to be the same as ND.

 

[RonJohn]

With us being AAU and the school making the commitment it has and is making, it is THE chip when it comes to the Big 10. Don't think it makes much difference with SEC.

There is stuff being passed around about some of the smaller ACC programs leaving the conference and along with Mike Krzyzewski's comments about the Big East and FB and a few other things I've seen being said is the ACC getting ready to cut itself down to a smaller number of schools that have history of being FB schools? Anyone else picking up on anything like this? The schools I've seen mentioned to leave are BC, Syracuse, UVA, Duke, Wake. I don't know, it could all be just BS talk except for the MK comments which were something along the lines of the BE needing to get more of it's present schools playing FB.

One of the things I've seen mentioned is ESPN would keep the money the same, spread over the lesser number of schools. When you look at the schools left it could be one heck of a CFB conference with lot's of outstanding games in a round robbin format. Do those 5 smaller schools want to get into the 20 million per year addn cost for player payment situation or get out now probably with the remainder paying something for them to do so? Just total speculation built off of the stuff I have seen mentioned above.

With ND wanting to continue to be independent, the remaining schools would be Miami, FSU, GT, Louisville, Pitt, VT, UNC, NCST, Clemson. This just my list, not seen this list anywhere else, although I have seen the schools leaving list more than once. Have no idea if there is anything to any of this, just throwing it out there to see if anyone else has heard anything like this.

A lot of people are saying a lot of things on Twitter and Youtube. None of those people have any actual information. The one about the ACC expelling members simply seems silly to me. What sense does it make for ESPN to spend the same money for less content? Why would they be happy with that? Do they want Fox, CBS, and NBC to pick up more content? Some of the programs discussed as being about to be expelled are down, and have been down for a while, but that is no guarantee that they will be forever. People like to make predictions based solely on football, and solely on football in the very recent past. SMU was a national powerhouse football program in the early 80s. They declined a little, but the NCAA death penalty is what really put their program in the ground. Clemson spent 20 years as a 5-9 win football team before they really ascended in the mid 2010s. Deciding who you want to be paired with based on last year's results is a fool's errand.

 

[Vespidae]

With us being AAU and the school making the commitment it has and is making, it is THE chip when it comes to the Big 10. Don't think it makes much difference with SEC.

Notre Dame is not an AAU member and I’m guessing B1G would be delighted to take them. So, it may be a chip, but not THE chip.

Since GT joined the ACC, we have a wpt of 0.549. Since 2004, we have a wpt of … 0.548.

Changing conference, if that happens, is not going to be a panacea.

Notre Dame has a far easier path to the playoffs through the ACC, especially if FSU and or Clemson leave. I still think the most likely outcome is ND joining the ACC after FSU leaves.

 

[RonJohn]

ND joined the AAU last year when Miami did.

 

[RamblinRed]

Updated revenue figures for the P5 from their 2023 tax returns.

Big Ten remains Power Five revenue leader with $880 million haul for 2023 fiscal year, per report

For the second year in a row, the Big Ten generated more revenue than its power conference counterparts

www.cbssports.com

ACC was third in revenue and third in approximate team payout. Basically tied for 3rd with B12.
Note: ACC was $6.5M less in payout per team than the SEC.

The original article was from USA Today.

Big 12 paid former commissioner Bob Bowlsby $17.2 million in his final year

Power Five conference tax records obtained by USA TODAY contain data on overall fiscal-year finances. For 2023, Power Five totaled over $3.55 billion.

www.usatoday.com

"All five conferences reported revenue increases, with the ACC recording the greatest rise: Nearly $90 million to nearly $707 million."

"About $38 million of its increase came from TV revenue. The conference said in a statement that this was driven in part by Comcast picking up the ACC Network in December 2021, which made 2023 the first full fiscal year in which the network had reached full distribution."

 

[Buzztheirazz]

I don't care who we play. I just want to get PAID the same as those lousy teams.

IDGAF about Louisville wake forest BC Syracuse either. Would love to play all the top teams in the Big10 as well.