Mark Packer had plenty to say Friday morning on the final edition of the Packer and Durham show on the ACC network about the future of the conference. Packer gave his thoughts on what the news that UCLA and USC are heading to the Big Ten means for the ACC.
“The trillion dollar question is our league,” Packer said on his final show with Durham. “To me this is going to be, we had a stretch during expansion, years ago with John Swofford. It felt like a critical time for the existence of the Atlantic Coast Conference and it was. And John Swofford had a front row seat and new it was coming. And so what did you see happen. Here comes Boston College. Here comes the expansion with Pittsburgh…etc.. And a lot of people didn’t understand well that is not my ACC. Well if that had not happened by John Swofford and the grants of media rights the ACC would not be here.”
The ACC has been here before and was able to make the moves to survive.
“So we have kind of been through this before but this how now reached the point where hey you have ESPN and they are in the football business. You have Fox Sports and they are in the football business. A year ago name, image and likeness was front and center. And we have seen how it has altered the world. And now you have the Alliance was formed and you got a sense that at least the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the ACC had this kumbaya and stiff armed the college football playoff for a while and we had this saneness among us ang then you had this issue yesterday,” said Packer.
The league is about to find out how committed they are to the survival of the conference.
“To me it feels like all bets are off. I think the ACC much like it was 20 years ago is now in a position of okay what is this going to turn into. It feels like your stability and the leadership and the kumbayaness of everybody. We are now going to find out the ultimate where are we,” said Packer.
The former Clemson Tiger explained how the Grant of Rights makes things different for the ACC.
“There are a trillion rumors and that is what they are at this time but you can’t dismiss a week ago if we had said UCLA and USC they want out well that is not going to happen. The difference there and what this league has is that UCLA and USC’s grant of media rights were coming to an end. So there is not penalty to leave. The grant of the media rights that is currently in existence for the ACC gives you the fortress of we are all in this together. Which means basically if you don’t understand what we are talking about that if school X of the ACC decided that hey I am going to go join the SEC or the Big Ten or whatever I am out of here. Your media rights between now and 2035-36 belong in the Atlantic Coast Conference. So all of the money that you are making with that guy over there the league (ACC) keeps,” said Packer.
The stability and future of the conference is now at stake.
“It is going to be a critical time in my opinion in terms of the stability of the league. This is where the leadership of not only Jim Phillips but also the Presidents and the AD’s to say hey listen are we going to stay together with this thing because you know from a rating perspective if you are the Big Ten and you are the SEC and you are looking around saying game is on for the ‘super conference’, to go back to my comments where there will be 40 to 50 teams, which I have been saying for so long. We are on the fast track,” said Packer.
