New ACC commissioner Jim Phillips faces big challenges without easy answers
he ACC also distributed a little more than half the revenue of what the SEC sent its member schools for the 2018-19 season, and that gap figures to grow unless the ACC can somehow convince Notre Dame to join as a full-time member.
The SEC and Big Ten remain the dominant financial forces in college football. From TV deals, merchandising, league championship games and bowl revenue, the two conferences sent member schools about $45 million and $54 million, respectively, in 2018-19 (the last year for which data is publicly available). The ACC, meanwhile, distributed at least $27 million to each school that year.
The Big 12 distributed an average of $37 million to its 10 schools, which represented a small decrease from the previous year. The futures of its TV deals, including the Longhorn Network, represent a clear inflection point on the horizon that has led some athletic directors to again ponder the possibility of another round of conference realignment, which nearly toppled the Big 12 a decade ago.
The Pac-12 saw a small increase in total revenue for 2018-19 and distributed about $3 million more per team than the ACC, despite failing to place a team in the College Football Playoff for four straight seasons and commissioner Larry Scott stepping down in June. While the league has had its own concerns over revenue and its struggling TV network, one Pac-12 administrator suggested there was obvious room for growth, while the ACC had flatlined. A number of ACC coaches and athletic directors who spoke to ESPN for this story agreed with that assessment.
"If we don't get our TV contract in the ballpark of [the SEC and Big Ten], there will be no level playing field in the Power 5," said one ACC coach, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "There will not be a Power 5 anymore, in my opinion."
The SEC just negotiated a new 10-year deal with ESPN that will further increase its revenue starting in 2024. Although terms were not disclosed, multiple outlets reported the deal is worth about $3 billion. The Big Ten's current deal, meanwhile, goes through the 2022-23 season, and it will likely get a new, more lucrative television contract long before the ACC's current contract is up (2036).
