CHARLOTTE – During his remarks to open the ACC Football Kickoff on Tuesday at The Westin Charlotte, conference commissioner Jim Phillips addressed the widening revenue gap between the ACC and the leagues that have taken the lead on conference realignment.
The Big Ten and SEC have each made recent moves to expand to 16 football members, and their television contracts are growing along with it. While ACC schools reportedly received an average revenue share of $36.1 million for the 2020-21 fiscal year, the Big Ten, which has added Southern Cal and UCLA, is reportedly eyeing a new media rights deal that could be worth $1 billion annually while the SEC, which is adding Texas and Oklahoma in the near future, also has revenue projections that would put payouts for their schools at roughly $50 million more on average than what ACC members receive.
The ACC’s current media rights deal with ESPN doesn’t expire until 2036. Yet Phillips said closing that revenue gap has been his primary focus over the last 15 months, adding “all options are on the table” in trying to find new ways to generate revenue for the league.
“We want to get distribution done, but we have some other things coming forward relative to what we’re going to do in partnership with some revenue consultants. Really excited to release that maybe by the end of the month,” Phillips said. “We’re looking at our TV contract, and we’re engaging almost daily with our partners at ESPN.
“I openly talk about ESPN because we are 50-50 partners on our network. They’re motivated, we’re motivated, and we’ve come together to have some discussions about what would be the next iteration for the ACC. It doesn’t mean we’re going to make a move. It’s doesn’t mean we’re not going to make a move.”
While the Big Ten and SEC continue to grow, Phillips said he doesn’t view the ACC following suit and expanding as a requirement to shrinking the revenue deficit.
“I think you have to look creatively, and we’ve been doing that over the last year. We’ll continue to do that,” he said. “All neighborhoods need to be healthy. It’s not good for college athletics if we’re not. We understand where those two leagues are. No one’s ignoring that, and we’re all trying to find ways to close that gap.”
Asked later if the conference more revenue could go to some of its bigger football brands as part of the distribution of funds in the future, Phillips didn’t rule it out. Clemson, which has won six of the last seven ACC championships and been the conference’s lone representative thus far in the College Football Playoff, figures to be the primary beneficiary of such a change if it happens.
“All options are on the table,” Phillips reiterated. “When you look at revenue, closing the gap, generating more and distribution, it’s all a part of a similar conversation.”
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