Rumor- UCONN Pursuing ACC Membership?

[CONN78SEJ]

Football is the key.

I’ll go further that and say Jim Mora is the key. Like 1-12 under Edsall. One year later a great coach takes them to 6-7. The men’s and women’s bball programs would really pump up ACC network ratings. If they want us, it will be much sooner than you think. Might even help recruiting over at Boston College. All that being said I would not be waiting with baited breath. Lol

 

[Kolumbo]

So…we are in the ACC then?

As far as you know

 

[hoopsfan22]

LOL at the idea of exit fees stopping us.

With our luck we get into the ACC as it is falling apart.

Probably, which is why I hope everything stays status quo for the next 5 years or so when the picture might become clearer as to the future of some of these conferences. Pac12 will get raided one more time by the B1G, then whatever second tier schools are left merge with the Big XII, and the handful of schools left after that look for a new home in one of the smaller western conferences. ACC is going to be picked apart by the B1G and SEC as soon as the coast is clear. Again whatever second tier schools are left after the most prized pieces are taken will join the Big XII, and everyone else will have to find a new home. Whichever of the three P5s not named B1G or SEC that is most aggressive will be the one that survives, and the Big XII seems poised to be that conference.

 

[ZooCougar]

LOL


Again.


and again and again and again. You poor saps.

If you prefer Seton Hall to UNC then you are brain dead and it’s time for you to go to Canada to be euthanized.

 

[JohnFSilver]

ESPN is in no way compelled to do anything with The ACC at this point in time. They own them lock, stock, and barrel for the next decade+. When their GOR is close to its end they'll work to move their most valuable pieces to The SEC while sacrificing a handful of others to Fox/CBS/NBC. The leftovers will likely reform a new ACC padded with a handful of G5 Schools that are all under a new contract paying them pennies on the dollar of what was available in media rights a decade prior. It sucks for the teams with actual value now like Clemson, FSU, and UNC who are grossly underpaid, and it will suck for the leftovers a decade from now when they are treated like ESPN's new and improved AAC.

ESPN isn’t going to overpay for rights. They have a mandate to control that.

I would say apple, Amazon and google are the future of tv sports.

Hell. I wonder if Disney would ever sell espn to google.

 

[August_West]

If you prefer Seton Hall to UNC then you are brain dead and it’s time for you to go to Canada to be euthanized.

LOL. It has nothing to do with what I prefer. It is only about dummies like you not realizing it's never going to happen.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

It's just a matter of time before the top 4 or more ACC football-focused schools depart for the B1G or SEC. The more time that elapses only increases the chances. Why? Because either:

(a) the buyout becomes less out of pocket expense for each school. As the years pass by and it is a simple math/monetary decision, they reach closer to the tipping point that they can afford to pay out the exit fee in order to go to greener pastures. The bigger the dollars that go to the B1G and SEC the easier it gets for them to pull in the ACC brands that sweeten it even more... And remember - the schools that have recently left a conference have been able to negotiate down exit fees to about two-thirds of what they were accountable for... or,

(b) the top ACC football-focused schools decide it's a smart move to legally challenge the rest of the conference by INDIVIDUALLY (as opposed to as a group) filing separate legal challenges to effectively tie up the conference/rest of the schools with massive legal bills. I'm no legal expert but if this is practical from a legal standpoint, then the shadow of massive expenses would shake the ACC foundation to the point where they might acqessuise privately and agree to reduce the exit fees to somewhere less than the two-thirds level. I think for something this drastic to happen there'd have to be conversations with the jumping schools and their landing spot conferences to see if their respective media partners want to make it happen before the next iteration of the expanded championship playoffs (2026, which is coming soon) or soon thereafter.

I think scenario b would happen in the next few years; as opposed to the longer horizon scenario a.

ESPN has certainly handcuffed the ACC and the FSUs, Clemsons, UNCs, Miamis, and UVAs are getting more anxious about getting left behind money-wise... Notre Dame is a wild card. ESPN itself is a wild card (would an entity like Amazon buy them out one day?). Will be interesting to see this play out.

 

[Blades]

ESPN isn’t going to overpay for rights. They have a mandate to control that.

I would say apple, Amazon and google are the future of tv sports.

Hell. I wonder if Disney would ever sell espn to google.

FWIW.....Here's a story from OU Insider that gives that take from 2018 for anyone who wants to read this stuff,

Conference re-alignment will come - shaped by tech, not TV

“Conference realignment will come,” he said (high ranking executive at Amazon) , “but probably not in the way you’re thinking.” “We already have more cash than ABC/ESPN, NBC or CBS” he said. “And, In another five or six years, it won’t even be close. And too, ”the tech companies are far more advanced than the networks when it comes to knowing how to use the future broadcast technologies, (streaming) and that gap is growing to"........

" Again, back to my friend at Amazon. “We’re still seven or eight years away,” he said, “but if we had to restructure the landscape today, we would not start by negotiating with a conference. We don’t care about the SEC, Big 12 of Big 10 as a whole. In our opinion, those entities are not our focus. “Instead, we would want to identify 30 or 40 teams that command the biggest audience. That may be by reputation or location, but generally we all know that there are members in every one of these conferences that frankly don’t move the needle. "

 

[Chuck]

It's just a matter of time before the top 4 or more ACC football-focused schools depart for the B1G or SEC. The more time that elapses only increases the chances. Why? Because either:

(a) the buyout becomes less out of pocket expense for each school. As the years pass by and it is a simple math/monetary decision, they reach closer to the tipping point that they can afford to pay out the exit fee in order to go to greener pastures. The bigger the dollars that go to the B1G and SEC the easier it gets for them to pull in the ACC brands that sweeten it even more... And remember - the schools that have recently left a conference have been able to negotiate down exit fees to about two-thirds of what they were accountable for... or,

(b) the top ACC football-focused schools decide it's a smart move to legally challenge the rest of the conference by INDIVIDUALLY (as opposed to as a group) filing separate legal challenges to effectively tie up the conference/rest of the schools with massive legal bills. I'm no legal expert but if this is practical from a legal standpoint, then the shadow of massive expenses would shake the ACC foundation to the point where they might acqessuise privately and agree to reduce the exit fees to somewhere less than the two-thirds level. I think for something this drastic to happen there'd have to be conversations with the jumping schools and their landing spot conferences to see if their respective media partners want to make it happen before the next iteration of the expanded championship playoffs (2026, which is coming soon) or soon thereafter.

I think scenario b would happen in the next few years; as opposed to the longer horizon scenario a.

ESPN has certainly handcuffed the ACC and the FSUs, Clemsons, UNCs, Miamis, and UVAs are getting more anxious about getting left behind money-wise... Notre Dame is a wild card. ESPN itself is a wild card (would an entity like Amazon buy them out one day?). Will be interesting to see this play out.

My understanding is that there is NO buyout in the ACC. It's a pure grant of rights. You can leave, but you are leaving your media rights behind. Of course, anything can be litigated, but most seem to think that a grant of rights is a different animal than a buyout.

But nobody knows all the terms. Maybe the GOR can be cancelled if more than 50% of the conference tries to leave, or something like that.

 

[huskymedic]

My understanding is that there is NO buyout in the ACC. It's a pure grant of rights. You can leave, but you are leaving your media rights behind. Of course, anything can be litigated, but most seem to think that a grant of rights is a different animal than a buyout.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

My understanding is that there is NO buyout in the ACC. It's a pure grant of rights. You can leave, but you are leaving your media rights behind. Of course, anything can be litigated, but most seem to think that a grant of rights is a different animal than a buyout.

But nobody knows all the terms. Maybe the GOR can be cancelled if more than 50% of the conference tries to leave, or something like that.

There's both a GOR and exit fees. The schools that want to leave will have to deal with both. Negotiations would have to happen to knock down the exit fees and knock down or out GOR.

 

[Luna]

FWIW.....Here's a story from OU Insider that gives that take from 2018 for anyone who wants to read this stuff,

Conference re-alignment will come - shaped by tech, not TV

“Conference realignment will come,” he said (high ranking executive at Amazon) , “but probably not in the way you’re thinking.” “We already have more cash than ABC/ESPN, NBC or CBS” he said. “And, In another five or six years, it won’t even be close. And too, ”the tech companies are far more advanced than the networks when it comes to knowing how to use the future broadcast technologies, (streaming) and that gap is growing to"........

" Again, back to my friend at Amazon. “We’re still seven or eight years away,” he said, “but if we had to restructure the landscape today, we would not start by negotiating with a conference. We don’t care about the SEC, Big 12 of Big 10 as a whole. In our opinion, those entities are not our focus. “Instead, we would want to identify 30 or 40 teams that command the biggest audience. That may be by reputation or location, but generally we all know that there are members in every one of these conferences that frankly don’t move the needle. "

Wow… what a interesting article… wonder where uconn stands in this…our mens and especially women’s basketball are top tier… Mora is a godsend… hopefully he has more magic in him because we are going to need it

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Probably, which is why I hope everything stays status quo for the next 5 years or so when the picture might become clearer as to the future of some of these conferences. Pac12 will get raided one more time by the B1G, then whatever second tier schools are left merge with the Big XII, and the handful of schools left after that look for a new home in one of the smaller western conferences. ACC is going to be picked apart by the B1G and SEC as soon as the coast is clear. Again whatever second tier schools are left after the most prized pieces are taken will join the Big XII, and everyone else will have to find a new home. Whichever of the three P5s not named B1G or SEC that is most aggressive will be the one that survives, and the Big XII seems poised to be that conference.

Forget the Big 12, they’ve already been picked apart and are in deep poo poo. Oklahoma, Texas, A&M are gone, Nebraska jumped ship in 2010.

 

[CL82]

My understanding is that there is NO buyout in the ACC. It's a pure grant of rights. You can leave, but you are leaving your media rights behind. Of course, anything can be litigated, but most seem to think that a grant of rights is a different animal than a buyout.

But nobody knows all the terms. Maybe the GOR can be cancelled if more than 50% of the conference tries to leave, or something like that.

Your understanding is not correct. The exit fee is three times earnings. That’s about $120 million. The GOR is valued at about $350 million if FSU were to leave after this season. So, assuming that the ACC would agree to settle to take a lump sum payment instead of just holding the media rights for FSU, they are looking at about $470 million to leave.

I could see an arrangement where Connecticut comes in takes a full share of broadcast rights, which might well be reduced, but does not get a share of FSU’s exit fees.

For what it’s worth if FSU and Clemson were to leave you’d be looking at $970 million and exit fees and GOR settlement costs. That can subsidize the remaining teams earnings for a considerable period of time.

 

[dbmill]

There is a rumor on CSNBBS that us and UMass are contemplating joining the MAC for football-only. I don't buy it, and I think it would be a terrible idea.

UMass football was in the MAC about 10 years ago or so for a few years. If I remember correctly, UMass football was kicked out of the conference when the MAC wanted UMass to join the conference as a full member in all sports, but UMass said no, as they wanted to keep their other sports in the A10.

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

UMASS lucked into hiring one of the better basketball coaches in the country last year in Frank Martin. If they were added to the Big East their recruiting prowess would improve significantly, see Houston for an example of what a good coach and a conference upgrade can do for a program.

People continuously regurgitate that "UMASS doesn't move the needle", nonsense! The Big East upgrade would create a huge resurgence of Massachusetts interest in UMASS basketball and that is the real reason UCONN and probably Providence would try to block them but make no mistake about it if the Big East wanted to expand UMASS is the best realistic candidate for that expansion.

Remember expansion is about adding TV sets. UMASS is the state flagship of a state with over 7 Million. You can't find a better candidate.

I used to live fairly close to UMass and now live in Boston. Take my word that no one in the state cares about their athletics. There are literally more UConn fans than UMass fans in the area.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Your understanding is not correct. The exit fee is three times earnings. That’s about $120 million. The GOR is valued at about $350 million if FSU were to leave after this season. So, assuming that the ACC would agree to settle to take a lump sum payment instead of just holding the media rights for FSU, they are looking at about $470 million to leave.

I could see an arrangement where Connecticut comes in takes a full share of broadcast rights, which might well be reduced, but does not get a share of FSU’s exit fees.

For what it’s worth if FSU and Clemson were to leave you’d be looking at $970 million and exit fees and GOR settlement costs. That can subsidize the remaining teams earnings for a considerable period of time.

FSU would pay about $470M to leave. The B10 pays $48.6 million per school each year. So is that about 10 years worth of revenue? Or am I missing something.

 

[ZooCougar]

LOL. It has nothing to do with what I prefer. It is only about dummies like you not realizing it's never going to happen.

Oh if it happens it’s only because the ACC is dying.

My original comment stands. There are actually idiots that prefer the Big East and they are utterly lawst.

 

[CL82]

FSU would pay about $470M to leave. The B10 pays $48.6 million per school each year. So is that about 10 years worth of revenue? Or am I missing something.

That’s why they have an incentive to stay until the GOR terminates. Supposedly FSU’s attorneys think they have someway to beat the GOR. I’m not sure what that is unless they think they can orchestrate blowing up the whole conference.

 

[huskymedic]

FSU would pay about $470M to leave. The B10 pays $48.6 million per school each year. So is that about 10 years worth of revenue? Or am I missing something.

“Big Ten schools will receive the same distribution in 2023-24 as it will this year, roughly $60 million per school. The payout will increase slightly in the second year of the deal before it jumps to roughly $100 million per school, annually, starting in 2025. That's based purely on the media deal and does not include revenue from making the College Football Playoff, bowl games or NCAA Tournament.”

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Your understanding is not correct. The exit fee is three times earnings. That’s about $120 million. The GOR is valued at about $350 million if FSU were to leave after this season. So, assuming that the ACC would agree to settle to take a lump sum payment instead of just holding the media rights for FSU, they are looking at about $470 million to leave.

I could see an arrangement where Connecticut comes in takes a full share of broadcast rights, which might well be reduced, but does not get a share of FSU’s exit fees.

For what it’s worth if FSU and Clemson were to leave you’d be looking at $970 million and exit fees and GOR settlement costs. That can subsidize the remaining teams earnings for a considerable period of time.

And if they can reduce the exit fee by one-third to half of the 120m exit fee, then the total nut becomes in the range of around 410m this season. Still a really big nut. It's the GOR that is standing in the way, so if FSU is going to try to get out of jail, it's the GOR that needs to be solved/reduced...

When MD left the ACC, didn't they create a legal dust storm pertaining to how they were against the GOR and were "forced" to go with it when enacted by the other conference schools? I might be wrong on that.

FSU seems to be the school thinking the most about some sort of legal fight/negotiation. Just not sure what their specific tact will be but it just seems like they are getting more and more public about it. Like some sort of public pressure campaign is beginning.

Can they prove some sort of hardship that could be settled in an arbitration of sorts? An arguement based on the school showing how they are being harmed by not being able to achieve what they are worth on the "open market" (as an independent or as part of another conference)?

It just seems that if you have one party to a contract/by-law that is being harmed/undervalued far more than other parties (i.e. FSU is worth far more than other members) to the contract that they might be able to wiggle out of the deal and remedy it by paying some sort of damages to exit early. I'm no contract lawyer, so can anyone here that is chime in?

 

[CL82]

And if they can reduce the exit fee by one-third to half of the 120m exit fee, then the total nut becomes in the range of around 410m this season. Still a really big nut. It's the GOR that is standing in the way, so if FSU is going to try to get out of jail, it's the GOR that needs to be solved/reduced...

When MD left the ACC, didn't they create a legal dust storm pertaining to how they were against the GOR and were "forced" to go with it when enacted by the other conference schools? I might be wrong on that.

FSU seems to be the school thinking the most about some sort of legal fight/negotiation. Just not sure what their specific tact will be but it just seems like they are getting more and more public about it. Like some sort of public pressure campaign is beginning.

Can they prove some sort of hardship that could be settled in an arbitration of sorts? An arguement based on the school showing how they are being harmed by not being able to achieve what they are worth on the "open market" (as an independent or as part of another conference)?

It just seems that if you have one party to a contract/by-law that is being harmed/undervalued far more than other parties (i.e. FSU is worth far more than other members) to the contract that they might be able to wiggle out of the deal and remedy it by paying some sort of damages to exit early. I'm no contract lawyer, so can anyone here that is chime in?

Didn’t Maryland leave just before the GOR went into effect?

 

[uconndogs]

FWIW.....Here's a story from OU Insider that gives that take from 2018 for anyone who wants to read this stuff,

Conference re-alignment will come - shaped by tech, not TV

“Conference realignment will come,” he said (high ranking executive at Amazon) , “but probably not in the way you’re thinking.” “We already have more cash than ABC/ESPN, NBC or CBS” he said. “And, In another five or six years, it won’t even be close. And too, ”the tech companies are far more advanced than the networks when it comes to knowing how to use the future broadcast technologies, (streaming) and that gap is growing to"........

" Again, back to my friend at Amazon. “We’re still seven or eight years away,” he said, “but if we had to restructure the landscape today, we would not start by negotiating with a conference. We don’t care about the SEC, Big 12 of Big 10 as a whole. In our opinion, those entities are not our focus. “Instead, we would want to identify 30 or 40 teams that command the biggest audience. That may be by reputation or location, but generally we all know that there are members in every one of these conferences that frankly don’t move the needle. "

FWIW.....Here's a story from OU Insider that gives that take from 2018 for anyone who wants to read this stuff,

Conference re-alignment will come - shaped by tech, not TV

“Conference realignment will come,” he said (high ranking executive at Amazon) , “but probably not in the way you’re thinking.” “We already have more cash than ABC/ESPN, NBC or CBS” he said. “And, In another five or six years, it won’t even be close. And too, ”the tech companies are far more advanced than the networks when it comes to knowing how to use the future broadcast technologies, (streaming) and that gap is growing to"........

" Again, back to my friend at Amazon. “We’re still seven or eight years away,” he said, “but if we had to restructure the landscape today, we would not start by negotiating with a conference. We don’t care about the SEC, Big 12 of Big 10 as a whole. In our opinion, those entities are not our focus. “Instead, we would want to identify 30 or 40 teams that command the biggest audience. That may be by reputation or location, but generally we all know that there are members in every one of these conferences that frankly don’t move the needle. "

This is where we’re heading…..this is it!

 

[businesslawyer]

UMASS lucked into hiring one of the better basketball coaches in the country last year in Frank Martin. If they were added to the Big East their recruiting prowess would improve significantly, see Houston for an example of what a good coach and a conference upgrade can do for a program.

People continuously regurgitate that "UMASS doesn't move the needle", nonsense! The Big East upgrade would create a huge resurgence of Massachusetts interest in UMASS basketball and that is the real reason UCONN and probably Providence would try to block them but make no mistake about it if the Big East wanted to expand UMASS is the best realistic candidate for that expansion.

Remember expansion is about adding TV sets. UMASS is the state flagship of a state with over 7 Million. You can't find a better candidate.

And if they can reduce the exit fee by one-third to half of the 120m exit fee, then the total nut becomes in the range of around 410m this season. Still a really big nut. It's the GOR that is standing in the way, so if FSU is going to try to get out of jail, it's the GOR that needs to be solved/reduced...

When MD left the ACC, didn't they create a legal dust storm pertaining to how they were against the GOR and were "forced" to go with it when enacted by the other conference schools? I might be wrong on that.

FSU seems to be the school thinking the most about some sort of legal fight/negotiation. Just not sure what their specific tact will be but it just seems like they are getting more and more public about it. Like some sort of public pressure campaign is beginning.

Can they prove some sort of hardship that could be settled in an arbitration of sorts? An arguement based on the school showing how they are being harmed by not being able to achieve what they are worth on the "open market" (as an independent or as part of another conference)?

It just seems that if you have one party to a contract/by-law that is being harmed/undervalued far more than other parties (i.e. FSU is worth far more than other members) to the contract that they might be able to wiggle out of the deal and remedy it by paying some sort of damages to exit early. I'm no contract lawyer, so can anyone here that is chime in?

You don’t have the right to terminate a contract merely because it was a bad economic deal for you and you’ve now determined that you could do better. Business couldn’t operate if it were that easy to walk away. However, parties to a contract can walk away from a contract and pay the innocent party the amount that the innocent party has been damaged by the breach, and if that amount is far less than what the breaching party can make by walking away — well, that happens all the time.

 

[noeynox]

You don’t have the right to terminate a contract merely because it was a bad economic deal for you and you’ve now determined that you could do better. Business couldn’t operate if it were that easy to walk away. However, parties to a contract can walk away from a contract and pay the innocent party the amount that the innocent party has been damaged by the breach, and if that amount is far less than what the breaching party can make by walking away — well, that happens all the time.

How do you come to a number for the non breaching party or parties? An ACC without Florida State is a product that is going to attract less money when their contract goes to market again.