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

[BostonCanes47]

What I’m also curious to know, why is Boston College considered so worthless in all these talks? Boston is a huge sports town with one of the most obnoxious fanbases you can imagine. I know they don’t care much for college football but I’d think the TV market would be valuable. I mean Maryland joined the BIG and I’d be surprised if they had a bigger fanbase or better TV market than BC.

No one cares about Boston college football and most people here don’t care about college sports. If you’re not ging to the game for a reunion or what not…you’re not watching. Notre Dame is by far the most popular team in the region. For every 1 person who is somehow watching BC football, 9 are watching Notre Dame. Ironically, maybe because I’m bias, but Miami has a decent fan base here too.

In short, there is no tv market here for BC football or really college football. The college football market is mainly Notre dame.

 

[wdk3618]

What are you talking about? I know exactly what is going on. I said I hate it. For Miami IF ACC could renogiate the tv deal to be comparable as other conferences that would be best situation. Miami moving to BiG 10 would not be ideal for numerous reasons

Please list out the "numerous" reasons. Slightly more travel? Sure. Potentially losing a yearly matchup with FSU? Sure. What else am I missing? The balance of scales is not even close assuming we are not paying a nine figure exit fee.

 

[Shogungts]

I believe if they break the GOR and leave the ACC, the acquiring conference can add said team into their TV rights deal. The B1G has a condition in place that they get a bump in $ for adding a team that’s not in their footprint. I think there’s work arounds

I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are not trolling me here, but the issue IS breaking the GOR - no team has figured out a way to do it so far. That is the biggest hurdle by far in any team leaving the ACC and what has been discussed on 237 of the 238 pages in this topic so far.

 

[Rickd]

What are you talking about? I know exactly what is going on. I said I hate it. For Miami IF ACC could renogiate the tv deal to be comparable as other conferences that would be best situation. Miami moving to BiG 10 would not be ideal for numerous reasons

The ACC can't renegotiate the TV deal to be comparable to other conferences ... because the ACC doesn't have the teams. Nobody watches BC, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Ga Tech football. ESPN is losing subscribers and their overall revenue is taking a major hit. No way they are in a position to virtually double the payout to the ACC when the revenue just isn't there.

 

[BostonCanes47]

You keep answering your own questions.

They aren't nor ever have been great or relevant in college football. They are similar to Rutgers in that aspect. For them, college football is an afterthought.

Even if they were relevant, unless you went to the school most people wouldn’t give a ****. From my experience this area is heavily Notre Dame.

As well, it seems like cities with pro sports history don’t usually have interest in college sports.

Boston college football will never be more than the 5th most popular thing in town and right now they are probably outside the top 10

 

[Dacrowcane]

Here is my naive question. If 8 teams do vote to disband the ACC in the next couple of months. What does that mean for the upcoming season. If the ACC is disbanded could they still receive the TV rights and have a conference championship?
Or is as simple as saying we agree to disband on Jan 1st 2024 at which time X team will be joining X conference? Since it seems the teams who left other conferences previously don't take effect for 1 or 2 seasons

 

[Cane6]

You can't "break the GOR and leave the ACC". The GOR is a contract between all ACC members AND THE ACC. The only way the GOR is weakened or broken is if the ACC is dissolved ... eliminated ... not merged with any other conference. That is why it is VITAL as step #1 that the AD's find new homes for virtually every ACC member. A joint vote and dissolution of the conference would be the step needed so they can leave. The delay I believe is due to the probability that ESPN will sue taking the position that ESPN has been transferred the GOR via the "irrevocable agreement" by the ACC in the media contract that the ACC Conference signed with ESPN.

If 8 teams band together and dissolve the ACC, I suppose espn could sue, but based on one of the 2016 docs I read I think it would be a fruitless endeavor, and could blow up in their face

 

[Cane6]

Here is my naive question. If 8 teams do vote to disband the ACC in the next couple of months. What does that mean for the upcoming season. If the ACC is disbanded could they still receive the TV rights and have a conference championship?
Or is as simple as saying we agree to disband on Jan 1st 2024 at which time X team will be joining X conference? Since it seems the teams who left other conferences previously don't take effect for 1 or 2 seasons

Even if 8 teams found new conferences today and formalized those agreements, you should expect a minimum of a 2yr lead time, probably longer

 

[Rickd]

I

Here is my naive question. If 8 teams do vote to disband the ACC in the next couple of months. What does that mean for the upcoming season. If the ACC is disbanded could they still receive the TV rights and have a conference championship?
Or is as simple as saying we agree to disband on Jan 1st 2024 at which time X team will be joining X conference? Since it seems the teams who left other conferences previously don't take effect for 1 or 2 seasons

It would most likely be effective say for the 2025 season. Pure speculation.

 

[Rickd]

If 8 teams band together and dissolve the ACC, I suppose espn could sue, but based on one of the 2016 docs I read I think it would be a fruitless endeavor, and could blow up in their face

Are the "2016 documents" the latest version of the GOR? I have read the 4 page GOR, simple document, but that was apparently replaced by a 30 page GOR document and I have no idea what the terminology is in that document.

 

[Shogungts]

The ACC can't renegotiate the TV deal to be comparable to other conferences ... because the ACC doesn't have the teams. Nobody watches BC, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Ga Tech football. ESPN is losing subscribers and their overall revenue is taking a major hit. No way they are in a position to virtually double the payout to the ACC when the revenue just isn't there.

Yep and even if they had the teams (let's assume the ACC was actually made up of the SEC teams), they don't have the leverage to renegotiate b/c the contract goes through 2036 and (so far) no team(s) has found a way out of it so why would ESPN renegotiate.

It's like you currently have an mortgage that was signed 3 years ago with a rate of 2.85% and your bank is trying to get you to refinance for current rates around 7%. You are going to tell them to kick rocks b/c you have another 27 years on the contract, why would you agree to give them more money. Unfortunately ESPN is the mortgage holder and the ACC is the bank in this analogy.

 

[Cryptical Envelopment]

I hate the idea of super conference, and I hate the idea of Miami moving to the boring a Big 10.

Nothing says Miami like Big 10
Baby!!!

Best thing for Miami would
Be for ACC to get a better tv deal than currently constructed, and or work with Notre Dame and NBC to have them join and jeep
ACC in tact.

The best thing for me would be for Heidi Klum to sit on my face and ND joining the ACC is about as likely. Let it go.

Miami (us)
Notre Dame (Elite)
USC (Elite)
Ohio State (Elite)
Michigan (Elite)
UNC (our biggest Coastal rival)
Penn State (we hate them and want to kill them)
Wisconsin (great college town, will be a popular trip)
UCLA (more LaLa and the Rose Bowl baby!)
Nebraska (we hate them and want to kill them)


Holy ****. That's a pretty **** exciting lineup that covers over half the conference. And as I've mentioned NW, MD, and Rutgers provide road game opportunities for UM fans in our biggest non-FL alumni bases of NY, DC and Chicago areas.

That's 13 members right there alone that I can find a desirable reason to travel to besides for the sake of seeing UM anywhere.

Sure it's not going to be 18 USC's, but schools like Michigan State, Iowa, Indiana and Minnesota are a lot more attractive than Duke, BC, Wake and Syracuse for sure.

The new B1G is not the old B1G.

 

[Angry Ibis]

**** nostalgia. We’re independent. Big East. ACC - we aren’t SEC land grant, ACC Tobacco Road, Big 10 …

It’s all about winning, but all else being equal, I’d rather Miami be the lone Florida black sheep in a powerful B1G, giving the long awaited finger to the SEC when we win, than be SEC. SEC, SEC…

That’s me.

 

[Tony4Canes]

Give it a rest.

The Pac-12's Grant of Rights had expired. There were no complicated issues to deal with.

That is not the case with the ACC.

Which should also be an indication of HOW MUCH MORE DESIRABLE certain ACC schools are than, say, Washington/Oregon. Because the Big 10 is willing to be patient and put up with our ****.

How about Oklahoma and Texas to SEC? Big 12 GoR expired when they made the move??

 

[TooColdToHold]

**** nostalgia. We’re independent. Big East. ACC - we aren’t SEC land grant, ACC Tobacco Road, Big 10 …

It’s all about winning, but all else being equal, I’d rather Miami be the lone Florida black sheep in a powerful B1G, giving the long awaited finger to the SEC when we win, then be SEC. SEC, SEC…

That’s me.

Greg McElroy said that some schools ACC schools are considering going independent and negotiating their own tv deals.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

How about Oklahoma and Texas to SEC? Big 12 GoR expired when they made the move??

The Big 12 GOR was within a couple of years of expiring when that happened. And Oklahoma and Texas were WILLING to stay in the Big 12 until the GOR expired. The Big 12 recently released Oklahoma and Texas a couple years early, because they have replacement members.

So, yeah, if the Big 10 and SEC are willing to wait until 2036 for new members to join from the ACC, THE SITUATIONS ARE IDENTICAL.

 

[Cryptical Envelopment]

How about Oklahoma and Texas to SEC? Big 12 GoR expired when they made the move??

Yes, it was coming up so they only had to negotiate moving up their departure two years. The schools paid up to get out. Astronomically different numbers from what the ACC schools would have to pay.

 

[Tony4Canes]

So now you're going to try to rehabilitate your prior post with a new example you forgot to mention earlier?

The Big 12 GOR was within a couple of years of expiring when that happened. And Oklahoma and Texas were WILLING to stay in the Big 12 until the GOR expired. The Big 12 recently released Oklahoma and Texas a couple years early, because they have replacement members.

So, yeah, if the Big 10 and SEC are willing to wait until 2036 for new members to join from the ACC, THE SITUATIONS ARE IDENTICAL.

Do you just blunder into these situations, or do you honestly not believe that there are people who know more about this than you do?

Good points on both scenarios.

My point was I'm not a fan of all this coming out in public unlike the other two moves.

It's a message board after all.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Look, I have posted many times about what an awful person Pat Forde is. He's the guy who "broke" the Seventh Floor Crew story and wrote the most accusatory articles about UM at that time, while IGNORING a very similar story that happened at Michigan.

Pat Forde has been an anti-Miami pro-Big-10 ******* for decades.

And now he blames the "every-school-for-itself approach", RATHER THAN BLAME an insane and overly-lengthy GOR, a held-us-over-a-barrel substandard contract from ESPN, and terrible conference leadership that have allowed other conferences to leapfrog us.

Enjoy.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Good points on both scenarios.

My point was I'm not a fan of all this coming out in public unlike the other two moves.

It's a message board after all.

Fair enough. Your points on secrecy being "preferred" are completely valid, and if I went hard, you seem to be capable of taking it in stride. I do think that most people who are still debating on Page 239 have read most of the thread, so apologies if you weren't aware of the advantages that Texas/Oklahoma had that are not currently available to the ACC.

And if I seem upset, it's because I'm ****ed off that the ACC put us in this situation with an insane 20-year GOR (see what I just posted on the Pat Forde article). It's simply a sense of outrage that every other school in the country has options EXCEPT FOR the dip****s in the ACC.

In case I haven't said it a million times before, **** Pat Forde.