RALEIGH, N.C. — As the ACC gathers for what figures to be the most awkward football kickoff on record, the phrase “revenue gap” will hang over these media days like a horror movie villain. And like Jason Vorhees or Freddy Krueger, the infamous revenue gap keeps popping up in sequels every time it’s supposed to be dead.
Five years ago, then-ACC commissioner John Swofford predicted it would “narrow considerably once we get the network up and running.” This spring, current ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said “we want to address that and close that as often and as quickly as we can.” The next commissioner, whomever and whenever that may be, may still be trying to stab a stake in its heart.
It all sounds very ominous, but “revenue gap” is just a polite way of saying “the SEC and Big Ten have more money than us and are about to have way more money than us.” Kind of like “still exploring our options” is a polite way of saying “deciding whether to move the ACC office from Greensboro to Charlotte has taken 12 months when it should have taken no more than 12 weeks.”
