A.C.C.'s new TV deal

[cygnus34]

ACC goes dealing

In an era when some sports TV deals have decreased, the beefed-up Atlantic Coast Conference has done well with its football contract with ESPN and ABC.

The seven-year, $258 million deal starting this fall, to be announced next week, jumps 58%, from a current average of $23.4 million for nine teams to an average of $37 million for 12 schools. Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech join the ACC this year and Boston College in 2005.

"The deal is finished," said ACC negotiator Barry Frank of IMG.

The ACC stressed keeping each school at $2.6 million in annual football TV income for the regular season, with the ACC championship game starting in 2005 worth $6 million a year to the conference before ticket sales and marketing income are counted.

ESPN, in turn, got the ACC to double its Thursday night games to six, and the annual ACC telecasts on ESPN/ESPN2 also increase to 18 this year.

And the ACC's new syndication deal with Jefferson-Pilot/Raycom has soared to about $4 million a year to the conference, nearly four times the expiring deal, in negotiations coupled with the league's basketball TV package.

Fox Sports Net to the Max

[USFMikeB]

And that, boys and girls, is exactly why UM, VT, and BC went to the ACC...

[bulls96go]

wow! $$$$$

when will the BE contract get done, hope we don't get squeezed too much - if we couple with BBall then we should do OK

[GarySJ]

The seven-year, $258 million deal starting this fall, to be announced next week, jumps 58%, from a current average of $23.4 million for nine teams to an average of $37 million for 12 schools.

Umm... $258 million divided by 12 schools comes to $21.5 million per school, not $37 million.

[GarySJ]

Never mind, I read it wrong. What they're saying is that the value of the ACC TV deal went from $23.4M per year for nine schools under the old deal, to $37M a year for twelve schools under the new deal.

$23.4M / 9 = $2.6M per school

$37M / 12 = $3.083 per school

So the ACC went to all this trouble to gain a measly $500K per school per year? Maybe $1.2M when you add in championship game revenue and the JP contract? These are schools with athletic budgets in the area of $35-$45M.

Was it really worth it? Especially when you consider that the TV deal for men's basketball will be signicantly devalued, and that NCAA tournament revenue will be divided 12 ways instead of 9?

[bulls96go]

if you go from 2.6 M to 4.0M that is a huge jump and the future is secure

[USFMikeB]

Never mind, I read it wrong. What they're saying is that the value of the ACC TV deal went from $23.4M per year for nine schools under the old deal, to $37M a year for twelve schools under the new deal.

$23.4M / 9 = $2.6M per school

$37M / 12 = $3.083 per school

So the ACC went to all this trouble to gain a measly $500K per school per year? Maybe $1.2M when you add in championship game revenue and the JP contract? These are schools with athletic budgets in the area of $35-$45M.

Was it really worth it? Especially when you consider that the TV deal for men's basketball will be signicantly devalued, and that NCAA tournament revenue will be divided 12 ways instead of 9?

I don't think that the bball devaluation will approach the difference in revenues for football.  Also, keep in mind that $500k means alot to the non-football sports that are supported through football.

[Bull Matrix]

Gary,

All I can tell you is that the ACC expansion was really worth it for USF. Thanks to Miami, VT, and BC. Those are going to be my three favorite schools in the ACC, LOL.

[GarySJ]

NCAA figures list the AVERAGE revenue for a I-A school as $40 million. That was for 2001, and that average includes the low-rent Sun Belt type schools.

So even if you give them a $2M gross increase per school, and say they're each making $50M now, that's a four percent increase. Four percent. Was it really worth all the acrimony? Hell, I bet expansion-related legal fees ate up a big chunk of the first-year profits.

Then these schools stand up in the summer NCAA meetings and it's say it's wrong for school to make money by selling media guides. What a pack of hypocrites.

And I'm not ungrateful that this series of events put USF into the Big East. Just analyzing ACC expansion on its own merits.

[Guest S.  Bien]

The Big East is trying to get the network to reduce football by no less than $10mm annually (from $15mm), and increase basketball to $16-18mm annually.  That would be over $25mm for the 9 schools that have all sports, or 16 teams total.  I would imagine this would bring us somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5mm in just the ABC/ESPN contract.  Also, the Big East has some regional telecasts that should sweeten the pot.  This would be worlds better than where we were well below $1mm annually for C-USA, before negotiations on televised games, and moved games.

Not ACC money, but still strong enough to assist us with the necessary budget increases.