"We can't afford to have conference affiliation governed by emotion."

[nelsonmuntz]

1. I agree with your earlier point that travel costs will not drive decisions at this level.

2. Do you think the Big XII's current contract is undervalued in the market? I would think that, relative to their competition, they have to be pleased with where they are.

The Big 12 contract seems a bit rich to me actually, even in this market. Now, if they added FSU, Clemson, Georgia Tech and someone else, I would say it may be undervalued. I think only two leagues are currently undervalued: the ACC and MWC. We don't know what the Big East contract will be and we don't even know what the Big East will be, so there is no way to assess that deal. The MWC signed the worst deal in college sports history. It baffles me how that league continues to add teams with that horrific deal.

I think the ACC deserves $20MM+ a year based on the other deals signed, relative market size and attractiveness, ratings, etc., and subjectively, I would have assumed that the ACC was worth more than the Big 12 on a per team basis. Swofford was rumored to be preparing for arbitration to get $21MM/year/school, and then abruptly dropped the whole thing, settling out at $17MM. It is worth noting that the ACC may not have increased its take on a per game basis at all. They simply added more inventory to the contract.

EDIT: MATH IN THIS POST WAS A BLOODBATH. TOTALLY screwed UP. RUSHED AT END BECAUSE HAD TO GET BACK TO WORK. WILL FIX IT LATER.

THAT is why FSU is so angry.

The contract has nothing to do with "what is the ACC worth", and everything to do with when the ACC signed the deal and what they can do about it now.

 

[businesslawyer]

I think the last point is by far the most interesting one. There were four potential reasons to add Pitt and Syracuse: (i) they were "defensive" additions, in advance of being raided; (ii) to give the ACC a chance to renegotiate its TV contract with ESPN; (iii) to kill off the Big East as a competitor; and (iv) to strengthen ACC basketball, especially in the Northeast.

Well, I never thought it was the first because you could always have added two Big East schools down the road, and know it (at least in hindsite) isn't the second because more money per capita was not produced. And my guess is that FSU and Clemson, as southern football schools, couldn't give a damn about the third or fourth. So they have now had their football diluted for no reason at all.

That is enough that I could see turning on Swofford. I still am not convinced it is enough to drive them to the Big XII, but time will tell. I will say that the "freeloaders" comment on Duke, Wake and BC may have been the first thing I've ever seen a "superpower" football program say that would make you ask why they don't band together only with superpowers and form a national premier league of 16 to 32 teams. But I don't know whether this is going there or not.

 

[freescooter]

I agree that the travel costs thing is not going to have any effect. I'd be pretty surprised if FSU in fact buses to many games. Maybe Georgia Tech which is about 5 hours away. Miami is 8-9 hours from Tallahassee (I've done it). Clemson is 7. Chapel Hill, Durham et al are at least 10 and obviously the further north you go bussing becomes even less feasible. And while I don't know their travel plans for sure, my guess would be that they fly everywhere except maybe Atlanta.

I also don't think FSU has any interest in whether the basketball side of the house is strong weak or somewhere in between. Nor do they care about the Big East...to the extent they think about it they'd probably be happy to see it sink, but I doubt they tink much about it...I do think that they may well have thought that the additions would be an excuse to re-open the ESPN deal, and that is why they went along. That they only earned a marginal benefit and ended up with a couple of also ran football schools for their efforts probably does tick them off. Florida State was one of the prime movers behind the first big East raid, and it really didn't work out for them. they ended up getting displaced in their own league by VaTech, who they really didn't even want. Can't imagine they see this one as having any better results.