When ACC officials and athletic directors met a year ago to begin a chaotic process that ultimately resulted in the addition of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the conference, they were in search of increased revenue and greater exposure.
With the inking of a new seven-year television contract, the league got what it was looking for.
The ACC has reached an agreement with ABC Sports and ESPN that includes the rights to the new conference championship game and a significant increase in the number of televised games. Such a contract and the potential for the conference championship game were the major impetus for the league's expansion, and the move appears to have paid dividends.
"From a financial and exposure point of view, [it] gives our schools a great deal of stability and continuity for the future," ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. "It is very much in line with our expectations related to conference expansion, so we're obviously very pleased."
According to The New York Times and USA Today, Wednesday's deal is worth $258 million. Swofford acknowledged that it nearly doubled the existing $21-million annual payout the league splits among nine schools.
The league will now receive $37.6 million annually; consequently, each member school will receive $3.1 million per year from the contract--a significant increase over the $2.3 million each school took in annually under the former agreement, signed in 1998. Separate negotiations with Raycom/Jefferson-Pilot Sports are underway for a syndicated television contract that will add to the total television revenue.
The new contract still falls short of the SEC's $41-million-per-year deal, but the league, which includes Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, has more traditional football powers than even the expanded ACC.
Officials at Duke, which a year ago was against the league's expansion, caution that the success of the 12-team conference depends on other factors besides financial considerations.
"Expansion was a complicated issue, and the financial side was only one of the issues," Senior Associate Athletic Director Chris Kennedy said. "We still don't know where that is going to come out."
Despite the increased revenue that the contract generates and the indirect benefits of increased exposure, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask--who works extensively with the athletic department and was a significant part of last summer's expansion conversations--does not think expansion will benefit Duke.
"We would not have expanded the ACC to make a million dollars a school," Trask said. "We'll take it, although we didn't want it, and my guess is, when all is said and done with the increased expenses for travel up and down the East Coast, there won't be a whole lot left."
The deal also increases the league's national television exposure, including double the number of Thursday night spots to six. Duke has not played a Thursday night contest since 1994, but athletic officials recall that logistical issues such as parking were a "nightmare" to coordinate.
The increase in the number of Thursday night games also forces athletes to spend additional time away from classes. Kennedy noted, however, that this is not a major concern, as football players miss very little class in comparison with other collegiate athletes.
Other non-Saturday telecasts, including an annual Labor Day prime time game and telecasts during Thanksgiving weekend, were also part of the contract. Coverage across other outlets, including ESPN Pay-Per-View, ESPN Classic and Spanish-language network ESPN Deportes, was also a major part of the agreement.
Among the other issues on the table when the ACC athletic directors met in Amelia Island, Fla., this past week were an increase in the number of conference basketball games per season, a site for a conference championship game in football and the possible relocation of the men's basketball ACC Tournament to larger venues.
In the interest of greater television revenue and with the hope of restoring home-and-home series that will otherwise fall by the wayside when the league discontinues its double round-robin format for basketball season, league officials held discussions about expanding to an 18-game schedule. The league, however, will stick to a 16-game regular-season schedule for at least the next four seasons, as recommended by its coaches.
Such a decision means that schools will only maintain home-and-home series with two schools, which the league refers to as "primary partners". Duke will have such a relationship with North Carolina and Maryland, but a home-and-home series with N.C. State will not occur this season for the first time since the 1910-1911 season.
The athletic directors also spent time discussing the other major expansion impetus: the conference title game in football. Nine cities will receive formal requests for proposals from the ACC, and Swofford said the cities will be evaluated in terms of their stadium, hotel and transportation viability.
Charlotte, because of its central location to the ACC schools, 73, 367 seat Bank of America Stadium and success hosting the Continental Tire Bowl in recent years, is considered to be the front runner. Jacksonville and Orlando are also considered top candidates to host the game, which will begin in 2005 when Boston College joins the conference as the requisite 12th team necessary to hold such a contest.
As for the men's basketball tournament, the league considered moving the event to larger sites to alleviate the ticket crunch that will be exacerbated by the addition of three more schools. Swofford, however, said the conference would not likely change venues until after 2010, the last year for which a site has already been selected.
Paul Crowley, the Associated Press and the News & Observer contributed to this story.
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