Miami Herald Q&A w/ Miami AD Radakovich.
Some pertinent comments:
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Do you expect ACC schools to strike a new revenue distribution deal that would give a greater share of conference revenue to ACC schools that make the College Football Playoff and men’s NCAA Tournament? And are you in favor of that?
“The answer to both questions, I think, is yes. The presidents have a committee that they’re working through. I think there’s a lot of unanimity amongst the athletic directors that some type of success initiatives, success distribution should occur.”
But even if ACC presidents approve this new plan in the weeks ahead, Radavokich said implementation won’t happen this fall.
It’s “not going to happen for the ‘23 season,” he said. “It’s going to be the ‘24 season” because that’s the year the playoff expands from four to 12 teams.
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Regarding the issue of schools bolting for conferences where they can make more money, FSU AD Michael Alford reportedly told FSU trustees in February: “We have to do something because we’re a brand. We’re a very important brand, and we drive the media value in this conference.”
Do you believe, regardless of whether you make the College Football Playoff, the same holds true for Miami? In other words, let’s say it was this past year when Miami finished 5-7. Do you believe UM would be one of the schools that deserve more because it is a brand, even if you don’t make the playoff?
“Yeah, I think it’s been shown previously that there are three or four schools — Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, Miami — who really kind of move the brand awareness of the ACC forward over time and for different reasons.
“You could throw Duke in there for basketball for whatever the basketball number is akin to these days.
“But I think there are two different questions. No. 1: the media deal is harder to affect right now, because we have the contract with ESPN that runs through 2036.
“The success initiatives have nothing to do with your brand. It’s just, ‘Hey, what did you do?’ [in football and basketball?]
“And if you won, if you go to the Final Four, or if you go to the College Football Playoff, we’re going to take a little bit more of the distribution that comes from those sources and give that to the teams that participate.”
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Alford said the Seminoles generate about 15 percent of the revenue that the ACC receives through media contracts, but receive only 7 percent of the distribution. How much of ACC revenue does UM generate? And do you believe that UM should receive that percentage?
“I don’t know how that metric was calculated. So I can’t, I wouldn’t even know how to begin to give you a number for the University of Miami. So, that was an interesting number.”
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It reportedly would be financially crushing for a school to try to leave the ACC because of a grant of rights contract that allows the ACC to keep TV revenue of all schools (even any that leave the conference) through 2036. Do you believe the ACC’s grant of rights agreement is airtight without loopholes?
“Well, all I can say is that same grant of rights has been in other conferences, and no one has really challenged it. So not being a lawyer, I don’t know the tenets of it. But just being a lay person, it must be pretty good if no one has tried to challenge it.”
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If the Big 10 or SEC calls you, would your interest be piqued?
“I’m not going to comment on that. We’re here to make the ACC as good as we can make it. That’s our charge. And that’s where we want to get to.”