ACC solidified

[Eldon]

PASADENA, Calif. -- The Atlantic Coast Conference presidents approved Monday a grant of media rights for the league through 2026-27, effectively halting the exodus of any schools to other conferences.

The move solidifies the future of the ACC, which had several teams that had been speculated as targets of the Big Ten.

The ACC's grant of rights makes it untenable financially for a school to leave, guaranteeing in the 14 years of the deal that a school's media rights, including revenue, for all home games would remain with the ACC regardless of the school's affiliation.

"This announcement further highlights the continued solidarity and commitment by our member institutions," ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. "The Council of Presidents has shown tremendous leadership in insuring the ACC is extremely well positioned with unlimited potential."

The ACC becomes the fourth league with a grant of rights, along with the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12. The SEC is the only conference among the "power five" leagues that does not have a grant of rights.

"It was pretty cut and dry to unify this league," another ACC source said. "The ACC has been a really good league, and now it can become really special."

Last year, when the ACC increased its exit fee from $20 million to three times its annual operating budget -- about $52 million -- Maryland and Florida State voted against the increase.

Maryland leaves for the Big Ten in 2014 and has filed a lawsuit, claiming it shouldn't be responsible for the new exit fee. The ACC also filed a lawsuit against Maryland, guaranteeing the Terps pay the full amount.

As far the grant of rights, "Florida State is on board," a source said.

Multiple ACC schools have been speculated as targets for the Big Ten, if that league decided to expand to 16 schools.

With the grant of rights in place at three other power leagues, if the Big Ten wants to add more schools, it would have to target schools from leagues that don't have a grant of rights -- the SEC, the American Athletic Conference (formerly Big East), Mid-American, Conference USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt -- or BYU.

On July 1, Pittsburgh and Syracuse join as full ACC members while Notre Dame joins in all sports but football. In 2014, Louisville joins the ACC as a full member.

"People are always speculating about teams leaving the league, but no one has wavered," a source said. "This [the grant of rights] is a good move. A proactive move."

The grant of rights coincides with the ACC's TV deal with ESPN through the 2026-27 season. That deal was worth $17 million per school per year, but sources told ESPN last year it is expected to increase to at least $20 million per school per year with the addition of Notre Dame.


There HAS to be some way out of this.  This seems waaay too good to be true for the ACC.  Anyone know?  If it stands up, this shatters my dream of ever getting Wake to the Big East

EDIT:  Here is the link
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9200081/acc-media-rights-deal-lock-schools-okd-presidents

[Sunbelt15]

ACC will dominate college basketball come 2014 on.