The ACC’s annual spring meetings are underway in Amelia Island, Fla., and are expected to end by midday Wednesday. It’s the first time the league’s top administrators will gather in person since Florida State athletic director Michael Alford publicly lambasted the ACC’s current equal revenue sharing model and said “something has to change,” because FSU could not compete nationally if it falls $30 million behind its peers in the SEC and Big Ten on an annual basis.
Those comments, made in front of his board of trustees back in February, made waves nationally and were followed up by similar calls for consideration of uneven revenue sharing from his counterparts at Clemson, Miami and North Carolina.
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Could the ACC ever adopt an unequal revenue sharing model?
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has acknowledged the league’s position relative to the SEC and the Big Ten and has hired outside help to find new revenue streams for a conference locked in to its media rights deal through 2036. What it would cost to try to get out of the ACC before that time is unclear; the exit fee alone is $120 million and there is also the issue of breaking the ACC’s grant of rights, which has not been challenged to date and is presumed to be airtight by most.
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