Why does the ACC have the lowest payout and the gap is growing?

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/how-much-is-the-buy-out-if-fsu-left-for-the-big-12.284991/page-2#post-4950899

ACC conference members gave away their third tier rights in exchange for forming the ACC network. That happened a day late and a dollar short. The ACC was 5 years late to the conference network game under Swofford's leadership.

However, the real mess is Swofford's negotiation of the 1st and 2nd tier rights. Swofford sold the ACC's 1st and 2nd tier rights for lower (way lower) than any other conference and tied up those for longer (way longer ) than any other conference.

Part of that is because the ACC is comprised partly of schools like Wake that bring nothing to the table in terms of eyeballs or fan support. Part of that is the fact that we have 4 schools in a single market (North Carolina). Part of that is we allowed other schools to join that bring nothing to the table either.

Here's something I did a while back after the '17 season:

Big 12 ($28.7 million per member for FY'17):
1st and 2nd tier - ESPN and Fox (expires 2024-25)
Third tier – Each member.
Note: ESPN and Fox pay the Big 12 $200 million per year for their TV rights. For their third tier rights, Texas receive an additional $15 million from its individual deal, OU gets an additional $8-$9 million, and schools like Baylor, TCU, West Virginia and Oklahoma State, get an additional $6-$8 million.

Pac 12 ($28.7 million per member for FY'17):
1st and 2nd tier - ESPN and Fox (expires in 2023-24)
Third tier - PAC Network
Note: ESPN and Fox pay the Pac 12 $250 million per year for their TV rights. The PAC-12 has retained third tier rights for the PAC Network. The Pac-12 Network is owned by the Pac-12 Conference and generates money for the conference.

ACC ($26 million per member for FY'17):
1st, 2nd and third tier - ESPN (expires 2035-36)
Note: ESPN pays the ACC $240 million per year for all TV rights, but in 2019, the ACC Network starts and could be a source of additional revenue per member. ESPN will own the ACC network, so ESPN will continue to own all TV rights for ACC members.

SEC ($41 million per member for FY '17)
1st and 2nd tier - CBS (expires in 2022-23) and ESPN (expires in 2033-34)
Third tier - SEC Network
Note: CBS and ESPN pay the SEC $380 million per year for their TV rights. ESPN owns the SEC network, so ESPN will continue to own all TV rights for SEC members, but the SEC network currently generates money for the SEC.

Big 10 ($38.5 million for FY '17):
1st tier – ESPN, Fox (expire in 2022-23) and CBS (hoops)
Third tier - Big 10 Network
Note: Reportedly, ESPN, Fox and CBS are now paying the Big 10 around $440 million per year for their TV rights. Fox just paid $240 million per year for just half of the Big Ten's 1st tier media rights package, which is about 25 football games and 50 men's basketball games. ESPN pay $190 million per year. CBS is paying $10 million per year on average for some basketball rights. The Big 10 retains some third tier rights that go to the Big 10 Network by virtue of its partial ownership of the Big 10 network. The Big-10 Network is a joint venture between Fox Sports and the Big Ten, with Fox Entertainment Group as 51% stakeholder and operating partner, and the Big Ten Conference owning a 49% stake. The Big 10 network currently generates revenues for its members.

54 NoleOne, 8 minutes ago