Stanford and Cal are expected to take reduced television revenue shares, while SMU will earn no television revenue from the league for approximately nine years.
The All Coast Conference is real baby
No TV revenue for 9 years?! So SMU is taking a ~$7m loss each year leaving the AAC for the ACC for 9 years? That’s wild
There are a few EXTREMELY rich families of donors, including the Hunt family that owns the Chiefs and FC Dallas, who have just promised to float the program and fund NIL at competitive levels, but I do not envy their athletic department staff. They’re going to be begging, borrowing, and stealing for the better part of a decade to keep up appearances, and if the football team doesn’t make some noise, the culture could get pretty toxic in University Park. They also have 30+ years of alumni who picked SMU despite sports not mattering and 30+ years of locals who found something else to care about.
TCU is constantly on a razor’s edge for general interest, even with 20 years of being an excellent G5 and respectable P5 program. It’s just such a crowded market. Winning will fix a lot of things, but winning at any sustained or impressive level been the missing part of the SMU equation so far.
impressive level
They have recently done this. They were ranked as high as 15 in November a few years ago. They clearly showed potential (albeit for one year). Did it come crashing down? Yes, of course. But hey, they had those clean Dallas tribute unis and that makes up for it, right?
That was just before NIL. Now that programs can openly flaunt cash, who’s going to stop them from returning to their Pony Excess ways?
I was shocked too. That’s an extremely long time to forego the entire reason the conferences are realigning. Either their donors have decided its worth the cost to finally make it to a P5 conference, or they’re betting that the GoR gets renegotiated sooner rather than later and they can change the terms then.
By all accounts it’s the former. What I’ve heard is that with NIL and a weakened NCAA and a clearer divide emerging between conferences, and also with some annoyance that their last coach bailed on them and immediately took their crosstown P5 rival to the playoff, the extremely wealthy boosters decided, “Money is openly king now? By god that’s SMU’s music!” Just like a socially awkward rich kid, they’re gonna buy themselves some friends. If I’m ESPN, I’m mildly annoyed.
This is mind-blowing
At some point, the people that run college football are going to kill all college sports with this greed
This is wild.
I’m from the heart of Tobacco Road and never would’ve thought one day the ACC would add Stanford and Cal.
What’s even crazier is I understand why it’s happening too. Not that I agree with it, but it’s all just crazy.
Sounds like it’s a hedge against FSU, Clemson, and UNC defecting. Makes it harder to invoke the rumored renegotiation clause in the TV deal, or to get the votes to dissolve the conference altogether (which I maintain would be WAY messier than a simple majority vote, even if such a vote is the key part of the process).
As a fan of a B12 team, I’m still feeling pretty sanguine about being part of a “power 4”, but this does up the odds of the ACC surviving in a reduced but largely intact form. Kudos to them for being less stupid than the PAC.
Kudos to them for being less stupid that the PAC.
I mean if that’s the bar…
“Breaking: ACC hires Larry Scott”
/s
So where do Oregon State and Washington State go now?
The MWC? Wherever it is will be a big step down for them.
MWC should wear the skin of PAC a la hannibal
Edit: or I guess buffalo bill?
