PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – After about a decade of stability with the ACC conference, reports now that nearly half of the teams are discussing banding together and potentially leaving or forming their own conference.
Veteran college reporter Brett McMurphy, currently of Stadium, says a group he dubbed 'The Magnificent Seven' think they all generate more revenue than the other ACC schools and should either get more, leave separately for other conferences or potentially create a new conference.
Those schools according to McMurphy are Clemson, Florida State, Virginia, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech. FSU's Director of Athletics Michael Alford admitted on the ACC Network they've had ongoing talks about shortening the revenue gap with the Big 10 and SEC. Alford said the other schools know they don't contribute as much and they have talked about it openly this week at ACC meetings in Florida.
He said any team leaving and joining the Big 10 or SEC would immediately double their revenue because of the richer television contracts.
The group of seven does not include Pitt. McMurphy said the first thought for the Panthers if something were to happen would be joining the Big 12. McMurphy says while he doesn't have any inside knowledge he thinks there is no way Penn State would allow Pitt to join the Big 10. He said based on the rules in the SEC about not adding a team from the same state as an existing member (although they will break that next year adding Texas). He is thinks that would be the same in the Big 10. McMurphy believes Penn State would not want the competition for the dollars and wonders if the conference would want, or need, a school nearly equidistant between Ohio State and Penn State.
This would have nothing to do with the teams themselves, as Pitt has recently won the ACC in football, in the NCAA Tournament in basketball, men's and women's soccer, have a strong wrestling program with a national champion and a top five volleyball program.
"Fans think this is based on success on the field, unfortunately it's not," McMurphy told The Cook and Joe Show. "It's based on the value to the TV networks as to what these teams or conferences are worth."
McMurphy also said Pitt's tradition would also bring value to any conference. What he doesn't know if what is Pittsburgh's value to a television network?
While he believes this is a long way from happening with a number of hurdles to clear, most notably what appears to be an iron-clad contract with ESPN until 2036, and a price tag of anywhere from $200 to $500 million to get out. Even with all of this, it's what the league's athletic directors and commissioner are discussing this week in Florida.
McMurphy reports schools, and he didn't specify which ones, have sent lawyers to the ACC offices in Greensboro to go over the 'Grant of Rights' contract. It's the only place to view the TV deal as the conference won't distribute the rules as to cause the contract to become public record.
If the landscape continues to change what McMurphy hears when he talks to college commissioners and athletic directors is they want to be more regional. One way of doing that would be to have football have its own conference and schools starting to come together and former closer geographic conferences for all other sports, including men's basketball. It sounds essentially like what Notre Dame is doing now, an ACC member for all sports but football.
Another thought-what if football had a pair of super-conferences of 20 to 24 teams and each played on its own network, like the NFL does with CBS and Fox? It's clear those conferences would include the 16 SEC teams (including Texas and Oklahoma) and 16 Big 10 teams (including USC and UCLA). So many spots would already be taken.
The other thought if the ACC falls apart as we know it now, is something McMurphy heard from former West Virginia AD Oliver Luck years ago. He said Luck told him after Pitt, Syracuse and Boston College left for the ACC there was a verbal agreement with all of the other Big East schools about joining the Big 12. They would have basically kept the rest of the Big East together and make it the Big 12's eastern division.
That could be revisited and what could come out of that is the Panthers joining Syracuse, Boston College, West Virginia, UConn, Louisville and maybe convincing a couple of other football members to join. If it would affect the current Big East basketball conference is unknown.
There is a lot up in the air, but what is clear is there will be some type of change. The schools that perceive themselves as the ACC money-makers are not going to stand idly by for the next 13 years until the current deal expires.
Here we are again and once again it's all about the money.
