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MEGA Conference Realignment and lawsuits Megathread: Stories, Tales, Lies, and Exaggerations

calinative umstudent said:
I’d expect that to be settled or brought to court. Cause realistically if the ACC is only giving us say $30M for our Media rights distribution, why would they be entitled to $70M distribution that the SEC pays?…
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Because all ACC schools signed a Grant of Rights to do just that. It was signed just for this reason, to keep members from jumping ship.
 
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Alex Del Piero said:
They are not trying to figure out anything, IMHO they think that kind of declaration will force the hand of the ACC for unequal revenue sharing.

Which is also in Miami's best interest and the only thing really obtainable by the conference's top dogs.
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everyone is stuck in the conf with the GOR. no one else wants an ACC school without the tv rights. this is the best move to improve from within the conference but doubt it will happen. acc has no motive to do anything.
 
hoops156 said:
this was all approved by every AD in the conf including Rad. blame them more than anyone else bc this deal was given approval
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Can’t argue with that, but there has been a remarkable lack of leadership and vision from the top. The biggest miscalculations were the ACC Network (and how long it took to get on major carriers), focusing on basketball over football, and not understanding the life cycle and value of renegotiating every 8-10 years. But more than anything, this conference is entirely reactive rather than proactive and visionary, which is ironic since Miami to the ACC put all of this in motion.
 
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Dream School said:
Because at the time everyone thought you need a cable network to make more money as a conference. Starting that up takes a lot of time and money so ESPN said if you want your own channel like B1G and SEC this is what it will take. The ACC gave it all away for ACCN
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1000% correct. The rush to get the ACC network off the ground is where the problem started.
 
hoops156 said:
this was all approved by every AD in the conf including Rad. blame them more than anyone else bc this deal was given approval
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The fact that Miami, Clempson and Free Shoes — specifically, the presidents and AD's — agreed to a 20-year extension seven years ago is a major indictment of all who signed off on that horrible decision.

We got big time okey doked by ESPN.
 
DerpaDerp said:
The only solution to getting OUT of the contract and long term ****** deal the ACC signed, is to have 8 schools leaving at the same time. Then...you have more leverage than you ever did and can block votes, block distribution, bring up unequal distribution of funds and basically ***** the little one's from getting anywhere during the scramble. 4 teams are leaving for the SEC. 2-4 other for the BIG and likely smaller conferences, or less powerful monetarily.

That gives you have the votes to negate paying the buyout, theoretically.
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There aren't eight schools in the ACC that have a better opportunity than the ACC. You would be asking a few that should be trying to keep the conference together to commit suicide.

And there's the rub.
 
Fightinibis said:
Exactly.

This is the same leadership that allowed Notre Dame to have a full conference share during COVID to be able to play in the championship game, but failed to negotiate for any of Notre Dames TV revenue in the deal. Quite the “gesture”
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Wrong. Every dollar of ND's TV revenue was added to the ACC pot that year.
 
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Cryptical Envelopment said:
There aren't eight schools in the ACC that have a better opportunity than the ACC. You would be asking a few that should be trying to keep the conference together to commit suicide.

And there's the rub.
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The real problem is they weren’t aggressive when they needed to be. Tv deal is ******? Go be aggressive, add schools/markets and reopen the negotiations.
 
Rellyrell said:
I’m not understanding the rebuttal. Miami’s games are often on out of market networks, & it’s been that way for a while. Therefore the viewership is handicapped. Miami is not close to being in the top 10 in media markets. So if I can find FSU more often on my TV whether that’s ESPN, ESPNU, ACC Network & I have to hang on a roof, holding an antenna pointing South just to catch a Miami game, how is Miami at a 20-25% shared eating clip?
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Because the ratings of programs that are down or not, the only factor that are included the brown value, including the types of people who pay to watch those ads in the future are also important in though this is just one example Miami is a top 10 brand in many ways that networks and advertisers look at it. So the analysis is yes a combination of recency (ratings), historical,future projection, and brand Strength. Advertisers and thus networks pay more for certain eyeballs - it’s not just “college football viewers”.

take This with a grain of salt but it’s not completely off on how other more used studies look at things during negotiations
247sports.com

College football's 25 biggest brands in 2022, ranked

...
247sports.com 247sports.com
 
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The U is back to work said:
John Skipper said on a pod it was because they wanted to be the first conference with a billion dollar deal and they were. Just came at a ridiculous cost to do so.
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It was also more that they were desperate to get their own network and we’re willing to make sacrifices, and it was a run by a bunch of idiots who have no idea, even though they’re in academia theoretically what the future value of money is
 
Alex Del Piero said:
They had lawyers working to find a way for over a year and nothing has come out of it for now, maybe it will be settled but not 13/10 years away from the deadline.

The only thing that could force ESPN and ACC to reopen that deal is a new member big enough to move the needle for everyone (Notre Dame).

Good luck with that.
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Where is this 300-500 million dollar number for the grant of rights coming from though? I have heard multiple people reference these number for a Florida State or Miami buyout on top of the 120 million to get out of the ACC. This makes no sense because I thought the ACC/ESPN deal was only 1.8 billion. So one team could theoretically responsible for **** near a third of the buyout?

I think it is realistic that either the ACC is taken to court in a lawsuit and loses or multiple teams leave at one time and ESPN renegotiates their grant of rights with those teams.
 
Cryptical Envelopment said:
There aren't eight schools in the ACC that have a better opportunity than the ACC. You would be asking a few that should be trying to keep the conference together to commit suicide.

And there's the rub.
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Clemson/FSU/Miami/UNC/Dook/UVag

IF you can convince UNC & Dook to give up the comfort and their outsized control in the ACC then I think you get to 6 very easily.

The difficulty probably lies in convincing 2 of these that they'll be taken care of but I assume the B1G and/or SEC would be cognizant of the need to blow up the whole conference to get their pick of the first 6 teams.

-Vag Tech/Pitt/BC/NC State

I think at the end of the day you end up just ignoring these schools:

-Wake/GT/Louisville/Syracuse

Sadly, I think sans a very strong coordinated effort by Clemson/Miami/FSU that it might end up being UNC as the domino that has to fall to actually blow up the ACC. Get them to start flirting with the B1G and then I'd say things are much more imminent than they might be right now.
 
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There are arguments to be made that the GOR is an invalid contract. Just because no one has challenged it yet, doesn't mean its unbreakable. There was a good article in the athletic last year. Many lawyers interviewed believe there is an argument that the GOR is a contract without consideration, or at least an argument can be made that it is. The TV deal provides money for the schools and their membership charters/contracts deal with those considerations.

The GOR actually provides nothing to the schools. At the time it was signed there was fear the conference would be poached so you could say it provided stability. But for what the schools gave up in media rights that is also a hard argument to make.

Either way its an expensive legal fight for both sides. But just because someone hasnt challeneged it yet doesnt mean someone wont. And it also doesnt mean its unbreakable. From the BIG12 GOR and Earlier ACC GOR that have been leaked there are definitely arguments to be made.
 
“They” being the ACC!

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Tad Footeball said:
Clemson/FSU/Miami/UNC/Dook/UVag

IF you can convince UNC & Dook to give up the comfort and their outsized control in the ACC then I think you get to 6 very easily.

The difficulty probably lies in convincing 2 of these that they'll be taken care of but I assume the B1G and/or SEC would be cognizant of the need to blow up the whole conference to get their pick of the first 6 teams.

-Vag Tech/Pitt/BC/NC State

I think at the end of the day you end up just ignoring these schools:

-Wake/GT/Louisville/Syracuse
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We may be nuts but I just don’t see the difficulty in getting to 8…
 
Angry Ibis said:
We may be nuts but I just don’t see the difficulty in getting to 8…
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I was just editing my porst as you typed this and I'd largely agree- but I think (as annoying as it is to still have to kowtow to these clowns) you probably have to get UNC onboard.

That might not be that hard if the B1G is truly interested but I (unfortunately) think it's slightly harder to blow up the entire conference if the only Carolina school in on the effort is Clemson.
 
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