Remember when deciding whether to move the conference office out of Greensboro was the trickiest question ACC commissioner Jim Phillips had to answer? Seems like a long time ago that was the ACC’s hot-button issue … in part because that decision has been marinating for a year.
It’s small potatoes now that the Big Ten and SEC have both since poached two teams from other conferences, moving threateningly toward a pair of Fox- and ESPN-supported superconferences, leaving the ACC even farther behind and threatening its very existence.
Phillips may not have imagined facing these kinds of issues in his second year on the job, especially with the 15 schools tied to the ACC through 2036 by the grant-of-rights agreement they signed in 2013, but it comes with the territory of running a Power Five conference in these uncertain times, to coin a phrase.
And, like any commissioner, he could find some of the biggest decisions made for him.
Assuming the grant of rights is ironclad — which the ACC believes, but has yet to be tested — and will hold the membership together for at least another decade, here are a few paths the ACC could pursue. (If any schools decide to challenge the grant of rights, all bets are off.)
1. STAY THE COURSE
Discretion and valor and all that. If the grant of rights holds, the ACC can continue down its current path, albeit with a greater imperative than before: looking for ways to grow revenue and figuring out how to entice Notre Dame into coming aboard as a full member.
Expansion doesn’t make any sense — other than Notre Dame, there’s no one the ACC could add that would increase their rights deal with ESPN enough to make up for the extra mouth to feed, or the ACC would already have done it — and it remains to be seen whether the content alliance being explored with what’s left of the Pac-12 will bring in enough revenue to make it worthwhile.
Meanwhile, Phillips will have to engage in some old-fashioned shuttle diplomacy to keep the schools with options like Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina happy. That job will be easier if he can conjure some good news to keep spirits afloat, whether that’s concessions from ESPN — remember, as equal partners in the ACC Network, what’s good for the ACC is still good for ESPN and vice versa — or more dramatic moves.
Pushing through the College Football Playoff expansion the ACC blocked last fall would qualify, by growing revenue and giving Notre Dame fewer reasons to look longingly at the Big Ten. The ACC has the right people in the right places — N.C. State athletic director Boo Corrigan is chairman of the CFP selection committee, in the room where it happens — to get that process moving forward again.
All of that might buy enough time for so many of the ACC’s mediocre football programs to become nationally competitive again and change the ACC’s position in the landscape, whether that’s Florida State or Virginia Tech or Miami. Those long-ago BCS regulars have been largely absent from the CFP, which is a big reason why the ACC is in this fix.
But the ACC could even go one step farther ...
2. BREAK WITH TRADITION
The ACC has a long tradition of egalitarianism, with revenue divided equally among all members. (Football independent Notre Dame, with a 20 percent share, is obviously the exception.) But in 2022, does it make sense for North Carolina and Boston College to sup from the same trough? To keep the league together, Phillips may want to ensure the schools that generate the most money for the ACC get the most money from the ACC — while keeping Notre Dame close.
That could be as simple as letting teams keep their own bowl and NCAA basketball revenue, or it could be as complicated as a formula based on performance, television ratings and revenue generation. In theory, at least, it would give some schools more incentive to compete across the board and grow revenue rather than simply cash the ACC’s paychecks.
There’s an obvious downside to this: Schools that end up on the short end of the distribution are going to raise hell about everything from the formula to the alleged bias of the conference office. (Twas ever thus.) But this is no time for half-measures, either. If breaking with tradition holds the ACC together, it’s worth it.
3. DISSOLVE THE POLITICAL BONDS
There is no language in the ACC’s bylaws and constitution covering dissolution of the conference, other than a standard boilerplate clause about the distribution of property. The North Carolina law governing the dissolution of nonprofits would theoretically apply, requiring only a majority of voting members to agree to it. (Notre Dame, for some reason, gets a full vote and not 20 percent of a vote, even though it only gets a one-fifth share of revenue. That has never been sufficiently explained.)
If it only takes eight votes to disband the ACC, and lawyers bill a lot of hours arguing such things, there are a couple scenarios that could get there. If Notre Dame and North Carolina were ready to jump to the Big Ten, and Clemson, Florida State and Miami were ready to jump to the SEC, that’s five votes. Perhaps the defectors could convince the Big Ten to take Duke and N.C. State as well, and the SEC to take Georgia Tech or Virginia to get a majority.
Those are not all schools either uber-conference would necessarily want if they each grow to 20 teams, but would they do it if it meant removing the ACC as we know it from the field of play forever? It would be a stunning display of predatory realpolitik, but SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and, as of last week, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren haven’t been shy about looking out for No. 1.
All of that is predicated on the requirement of a majority vote to dissolve. But it’s one way the grant of rights becomes no longer a barrier to exit.
4. TURN BACK THE CLOCK
If it’s clear the grant of rights won’t hold up and the Big Ten isn’t willing to play ball there — and if it’s untenable on Jones Street for North Carolina to leave N.C. State behind — perhaps it still makes sense for the Big Four to join a vote to dissolve. Let Clemson, FSU and The U go to the SEC, then follow the example of the ACC’s origin story and step out on their own. UNC, Duke, N.C. State, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Virginia and Virginia Tech could form a new-old ACC — the Atlantic Coast Conurbation? — and perhaps add someone like Navy as an eighth member.
It would provoke an absolute legal maelstrom from those left behind, especially if the new-old members negotiate with ESPN to inherit what used to be the ACC Network. But there’s precedent.
As the WAC expanded to an ungainly 16 teams across nine states in the late 1990s, an eerie harbinger of today’s wild realignment, some of the original members no longer wanted to be a part of a conference that no longer resembled the WAC they had founded. Five charter members pulled out, grabbed a few other key schools and formed the Mountain West. They never looked back. The Mountain West thrived and the WAC withered.
The New ACC group might not make as much money en toto as the Old ACC, but by cutting out the dead weight it might get close enough on a per-school basis to remain nationally relevant — and with the advantage of being geographically congruent, like-minded institutions with a rich shared history. You know, the kind of things that used to define college conferences.
5. TRIM THE FAT
As unlikely as the secession scenarios are, this one is even more unlikely: getting smaller even without dissolving the ACC. As cable per-subscriber revenue becomes less important than it was a decade ago, it’s hard to imagine the conference’s rights fees going down dramatically without — let’s pick an ACC school totally at random — Boston College.
Again, there’s precedent: The Big East kicked Temple football out in 2002 after the Owls failed to meet attendance and scheduling goals. It takes a three-fourths vote of ACC presidents to expel a member for being “incompatible with the objectives of the conference.” Notably, those objectives never mention competitiveness but they do include “responsible fiscal management.”
It’s exceedingly unlikely 11 presidents would agree to expel another member at all, let alone for an extra $3 million or so per school per year, but if throwing someone out of the lifeboat somehow saves the rest of the ACC, it could happen.
At this point, just about anything could.
