The Hotline mailbag is published every Friday. Send questions to [email protected] and include ‘mailbag’ in the subject line — or hit me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline.
*** Please note: Several topics related to Pac-12 media rights and expansion will be answered separately, in forthcoming articles.
(Some questions have been edited for clarity and brevity.)
What do you make of former ESPN chairman John Skipper’s comments that the ACC and Pac-12 should merge and that would force a renegotiation of the ACC’s deal with ESPN? — @pfnnewmedia
Anytime Skipper addresses college sports realignment or media matters, we listen. And the concept of a bicoastal merger has been discussed (on the Hotline and elsewhere) since the immediate aftermath of USC and UCLA announcing their departures to the Big Ten.
However, we see a few hurdles.
The ACC’s media deal with ESPN runs into 2036 and coincides with the grant-of-rights agreement that binds each school’s media revenue to the conference. That, not the media contract itself, is holding the ACC together. So far, it has proven unbreakable.
As we see it, there are two outcomes to a merger:
— The grant-of-rights remains in place as incoming Pac-12 schools commit to the partnership until 2036.
— The grant-of-rights is broken in order to force a shorter contract cycle and a renegotiation of the ACC’s current deal.
Both are problematic.
We cannot see Oregon or Washington (or Utah, for that matter) agreeing to a grant-of-rights deal into the mid-2030s. And if the agreement is broken, the ACC might collapse. Clemson and Florida State are unhappy with the revenue situation and would assuredly seek membership in the SEC.
Meanwhile, North Carolina would be a candidate for both the Big Ten and SEC.
The SEC isn’t actively looking to add schools, but the dissolution of the ACC’s grant-of-rights might change the landscape.
Could it happen? A majority of the ACC’s 14 full-time members would need to…
Read the full article here
