Not sure why any of those 3 are wasting away legal fees at this point given that ESPN has to notify the ACC by JAN 2025 as to whether or not they pick up their 2027 option. If ESPN is going to orchestrate movement of ACC schools to the SEC as expected, they won't pick up the option and the ACC will likely implode in some fashion, definitely with no GOR buyouts and exit fees TBD.
Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)
- Thread starter ISUcyclones11
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Bet you a we will donation that ESPN renews the deal if those schools are still in the ACC at the time and the lawsuit is settled in the ACC’s favor.
No ACC school is going to leave by year end 2024 when ESPN's decision is due. And if ESPN wants to expand the SEC with ACC schools and rid themselves of Wake, BC, Cuse, etc. as speculated, they won't pick up the 2027 option.
There's no more important time to watch Disney, as a whole, than for the next year. Iger is investing massive amounts back into their amusement parks and, has recently, gotten in to gaming (a recent study says 100% of boys between 14 and 17 play video games and, surprisingly, 75% of girls do too. SIMPLY WOW! Morph those games in to some sort of gambling and I see a HUGE strategic business opportunity looming when they get to college. WHOA!). IMO, he's structuring to spin off the debt laden ESPN. For ESPN's part, strategic subcontracting of games may be their best strategy. And, of course, leveraging more gambling can also help. I think the biggest thing to watch is their 'capital' position at the next contract negotiation. Without big bucks from a parent company (assuming Disney spins them off), ESPN may be in a very difficult position to compete. AND, as noted in today's news, if Notre Dame's comment move the bar in Congress, these negotiations will get even more interesting. A lot of moving pieces. We will see.
I wouldn’t buy into any study that says 100% of anyone does anything.
And Disney doesn’t seem to be as interested in spinning off ESPN as they used to. They just spent big money on the NBA and with the way sports gambling is headed, the ESPNBet seems to be a winner for them going forward. I expect them to continue to monetize the streaming angle to recoup these expenses from the league contracts and be just fine.
I don't think they will as I posted.
ESPN wants to consolidate brands in the SEC like Fox did for the B10 and destroyed the PAC in the process. It appears ESPN will do likewise to the ACC and probably move some ACC schools to the B12. Some schools like Wake and BC will end up as collateral damage like ORSt and Wazzu.
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Yep people around here want ESPN to fail so badly that they are hoping Disney spins them off. Anything can happen, but Iger has made it well known now ESPN is currently one of the key pillars to their strategy. Including bringing ESPN to Disney+ and launching ESPN Flagship next year.
So you think ESPN wants to pay more just to have the SEC name on a few of them? Rather than keep them at a discount?
It isn’t just that they have the SEC name, it’s also about getting them the SEC schedule. It offers more opportunities for primetime games than they’d get in the ACC.
It also secures more teams to the top tier conferences for if they ever pull the trigger on the super league. They can jettison the bottom feeders of the Big10 and SEC to get the lineup they want without having to deal with the ACC to do so.
Thats exactly what they tried to do with OuT - pay them more in the SEC and shunt the hateful 8 to the American for much less. Net net it was a savings. Unfortunately for ESPN the hateful 8 played their cards well, didnt **** their pants, and stayed together.
4 x 65 plus some peanuts is less than 14 x 30. (Or whatever the exact numbers are).
More importantly, the long term (medium term?) strategy is to considate the big brands so they can be easier split off to themselves. Having the top 20 brands in 2 conferences is easier to control than having them spread out.
On top of all that, the big brands FSU, Clemson want out of the ACC in the worst way. So they may take a partial SEC share for a while, reducing the pressure on a bigger SEC total price, and reducing the cost to ESPN. it may not be 4 x 65, it might be 4 x 40. Which isnt much different than status quo.
Also, who is going to bid them up for the ACC leftovers in a new contract? Fox? Maybe. But maybe not. If the good ACC teams go to the Big12, then youre paying roughly the same, or maybe less (like the M4 when they joined).
As long as they think the money is break even-ish (and based on my thoughts above, i think it is) they strongly prefer the ACC to breakup.
And ALL this isnt to say its a sure thing, but just dont kid yourself about "paying more" making it impossible.
Yeah, they will pay more for a few of them (SEC), pay equal for a few of them (B12) and not pay anything to a few of them (they die like ORSt and Wazzu).
Whether they can pull that off remains to be seen. I am hoping there is Fed intervention of some kind to prevent it from happening and somehow reinstate ORSt and Wazzu in this manner keeping in mind the Syracuse President is on the Board that is pushing the CST Super League. And Syracuse is certainly at risk of meeting the same fate as ORSt and Wazzu.
How does that Tweet make sense. The ACC has a deal with ESPN.
Sure, but doesn't the Big12 also have a deal with ESPN and FOX? Maybe I should Tweet Utah joined the Big12 so that it would have both bases covered- Fox with Big10 and ESPN with SEC.
Until ACC departure talk ends and ESPN commits until 2036- it doesn't seem like the ACC has much to offer. Plus not seeing the ESPN push angle as ESPN gets Big12 inventory for around $18M annually per school. Pretty sure ESPN pays more to each ACC school.
There is only so much OTC and linear channel capacity to show games. Which can be met with the current 16-18 team conferences. It seems any further realignment has to drive growth of streaming subscriptions to make financial sense. I will be curious to see how the VENU partnership impacts media deals.
I wonder if Miami and Florida State are going to consider the PAC 12 too?
