FERNADINA BEACH, Fla.— Throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, officials within the ACC constantly fought rumors and speculation about the conference’s demise. Every few months, it seemed, brought another account of Florida State and Clemson’s impending defection for the Big 12 and then, in late 2012, Maryland announced that it was leaving the ACC for the Big Ten.
The departure of one of the ACC’s founding members stunned the conference. It solidified the perception, which had existed for years, that the ACC was vulnerable for poaching; that its relative lack of revenue, compared to the SEC and Big Ten, was too large of a problem to ignore or perhaps even solve.
A decade later the ACC still faces a revenue problem, relative to its two main conference rivals, only the financial pressure has become much more dire. Ten years ago, the ACC generated $50 million less than the SEC, and $93 million less than the Big Ten. The margin between the wealthiest two leagues and the ACC seemed large then, but has since become hundreds of millions of dollars wide.
