This aspect of Big Ten, SEC expansion encourages commissioner Jim Phillips on ACC’s future
CHARLOTTE — ACC commissioner Jim Phillips on Wednesday pointed to the conference realignment departures that have weakened the Big 12 and Pac-12 as a way of illustrating the length and strength of his league’s grant of rights deal.
But then that became a form of guesswork by the time Phillips finished the thought at the ACC Kickoff preseason football event.
Phillips noted Texas and Oklahoma will be leaving the Big 12 for the SEC by 2025 and UCLA and USC will be exiting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in 2024, the moves that again have cranked up the chaotic waves of realignment.
The timing in both cases coincides with when their leagues’ current media rights contracts end, meaning Texas and Oklahoma aren’t challenging the Big 12, and UCLA and USC aren’t challenging the Pac-12 to jump early to their new conferences.
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“So you can follow the logic there,” Phillips said, alluding to the ACC’s grant of rights deal. “I would think that the significance of what that would mean, the television rights that the conference owns as well as a nine-figure financial penalty. I think it holds, but your guess is as good as mine.”
Fourteen seasons remain on the ACC’s television contract with ESPN, which was extended in 2016 and expires in 2036. If a school left the ACC and moved to another conference, breaking the grant of rights deal would require an exit fee of perhaps $120 million.
The ACC’s per-team estimated payouts under its TV deal underline the revenue gap the league faces in comparison to the SEC and Big Ten. The ACC should pay out about $40 million per team in approaching years, while the SEC and Big Ten figure to pay out more than $70 million per team with their upcoming deals.
Can the ACC’s grant of rights serve as a roadblock to conference realignment, to help keep the ACC tethered together and afloat amid the uncertain waters of realignment?
“Everything is on the table,” Phillips said. “We understand what that means. We understand what that revenue means moving forward. But I will also say, as I look at the next few years, I like where we’re going. But again, the window is through ’36, so we’re going to have to address it no question.”
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Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Times-News: How Big Ten, SEC expansion encourages Jim Phillips about ACC’s future
