Tony Altimore@TJAltimore
CLOSING THE GAP:
LET'S CHAT FSU + UNEQUAL REVENUE SHARING
CFB world is buzzing right now about FSU's bold demands for unequal revenue share after its trustee meeting!
Clemson, Miami, Washington, Oregon, etc. will want the same, as all have to close a gap of $30+ million to their competitors in the B1G or SEC. How can they do it?
— MEDIA MONEY: I don’t see it here. This money gets split up evenly, and changing to make it uneven would be a humiliating a kick in the teeth to small market teams that Prez+ADs won’t likely be OK swallowing
— NEW PLAYOFF MONEY: The new, expanded playoff is going to dump a TON of money on all the major confs (maybe $10-15+ million avg. per team). Because this is “new” money, dividing it up unequally is WAY easier to swallow than taking away people’s current / existing media money share
— "MERIT-BASED:" Prez+ADs won’t simply hand more money to the big teams. It needs to be palatable and “sound” fair. Like much in society, confs can pretend that “anybody” can earn the extra money (but we all know who it is really for, as the "rich get richer," though we're likely going to be OK with that for the greater good)
— CLOSE THE GAP: Assuming they’re as good as they think they are, the “big wig” teams could close their $30M gaps fairly easily this way, and also NOT have to move to the SEC, and stay big fish in their small ponds
— B1G GOALS REMAIN: Remember that there are enormous academic (and non-sports financial!) benefits from joining the Big Ten, which many schools will still clamor for membership, likely more so than SEC
— RESTORE BALANCE: This might tip the scales to calm the potentially catastrophic effects of a 2030s conference realignment
— JUST AN IDEA: We do NOT know how this will go, but this is just one example of an idea for how the ACC/Pac/etc. might more palatably “find” enough money to close the revenue gaps of their major teams and keep them from trying to bolt to higher revenue confs