Five years before we worry about the next conference for the Orange
Syracuse Orange fans won’t have to worry about the ACC breaking apart for a few more years. The ACC has agreed to a new revenue sharing structure which has led to Florida State and Clemson dropping their lawsuits against the conference.
Jim Phillips: “This new structure demonstrates the ACC embracing innovation and further incentivizing our membership based on competition and viewership results. The settlements, coupled with the ACC’s continued partnership with ESPN, allow us to focus on our collective future..” https://t.co/AVYxKroR0y
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 4, 2025
There are a couple of interesting parts of the deal. First is the new “brand initiative” for revenue distribution. Under this new model, 60% of the total ACC television revenue will be directed towards distribution based upon each team’s percentage of the ACC’s total viewership, based on a five-year rolling average. The remaining 40% will be divided evenly among the schools. In theory, this will reward the best teams, as they’d likely get more exposure via ABC/ESPN games.
This initiative will also include basketball ratings, but the majority of the metric will be based on football. What will be interesting is how weeknight football games will impact the viewing numbers. Syracuse is one of the few schools willing to play Friday night games, so getting away from the stacked Saturdays can help the Orange, especially if they can deliver exciting football like they did in 2024. You’d imagine that next fall’s Halloween game against Bill Belichick’s UNC Tar Heels should draw a strong rating. Combine that with games against Tennessee, Clemson and Notre Dame and Syracuse should find themselves on the upper end in 2025 football viewership.
The other major change is the ACC exit fee and media rights. The grant of rights exit fee will drop by $18 million per year moving from $165 million next year to $75 million in 2030-31. Any school which exits the ACC and pays the fee will leave with their media rights intact.
Obviously, this makes it more likely that the ACC can lose multiple schools after 2031, but with Big Ten and Big 12 media deals coming up in 2030, there’s always the chance that top ACC schools could be earning money on par with schools in those leagues. The current direction of college athletics would indicate the Power 4 is on track to become a Power 2, but does the ACC move make some B10 and SEC schools question their equal revenue sharing model?
This new deal at least has ended the current litigation and gives the ACC more time to try and position themselves for survival in the next decade.