About a month ago, we wrote that I felt it’s likely better in the long run for the ACC if the Pac 12 stays together.
If the Pac12 remains there is still some semblance of a competitive balance between the 5 conferences if not a financial one. A college athletics with a viable Big12, ACC, and Pac12 cannot be pushed to the side by the SEC and Big 10. They just can’t. There are still too many high-end brands and athletics to be excluded.
I still believe that, and now I think the Pac 12 is closing in on completing their media rights deal.
At a board meeting today, Pac-12 presented presidents with an update on what’s termed “accelerated” progress on a TV deal, sources tell @SINow.
Only a general framework was revealed, w/ significant linear concepts. A more substantive framework expected by FB media day (July 21).
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) June 30, 2023
What of a potential ACC Pac 12 merger of some sort? There won’t be any sort of merger, scheduling or otherwise until the Pac 12 gets this deal completed.
Spencer McLaughlin of LockedonPac-12 suggests that this merger should be pursued…
“I’m not saying it’s going to allow you to catch the Big Ten and the SEC, but when you have a Pac-12 team playing an ACC team, you’re going to put that in a primetime window,” McLaughlin said. “You have a national audience paying attention to the game.”
Former ESPN President John Skipper had to this say about a possible merger.
“The ACC Network has contracts with all the distributors that pay an in-conference fee and pay an out-of-conference fee based on states, and that is not negotiable. That is enforceable and suddenly all those subscribers — it’s a declining universe, there’s still 15 million subscribers in that footprint, give or take — and they would suddenly be paying a couple of bucks a year for the ACC Network,” Skipper said.
We know there were talks last year that seemingly stalled, but I have feeling that they are aren’t completely dead.
I expect the Pac 12 to get their deal done in the next 3 weeks, and then we can ask the question again whether anything can from a Pac 12 ACC partnership.
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