Florida ad says arrears ACC revenue ‘must change’

Florida State athletic director Michael Alford told his board of trustees on Friday that “something has to change” when it comes to bridging the growing revenue gap with other conferences — a sign that one of the league’s biggest brands isn’t happy with the current conference. building.

In a phone interview with ESPN later Friday, Alford said he decided to make his comments after recent ACC winter meetings in which athletic directors and chiefs discussed the unequal revenue-sharing model without any consensus moving forward on what to do.

In the case: The ACC will lag behind both the SEC and the Big Ten in revenue by about $30 million a year when their respective new TV contracts kick in (Big Ten in 2023, SEC in 2024).

“Something has to change because we can’t compete nationally with $30 million behind every year,” Alford said. “It’s not one year. We’re talking about $30 million vehicles year after year.”

The ACC is tied into its television deal with ESPN through 2036. The league also has all of the schools attached with grants of rights that last for the term of the contract. In the most recent financial filing available, the ACC distributed a record $578 million to its members for 2020-2021. The SEC distributed $721.8 million in 2021-22, but that’s before its new deal kicks off.

Based on a market assessment he commissioned, Alford told board members Friday that FSU contributes about 15% of the value of the ACC’s media rights deal, but the school only gets 7% of the distributions as one of 14 full members in the conference. .

Currently, the ACC distributes its revenue equally among all 14 full-time members. But the conference decided to look at different models for unequal revenue distribution after the recent conference realignment left Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, and USC and UCLA joined the Big Ten. There has been speculation that the ACC’s larger brands could be next in line if there is another wave of expansion.

Granting rights currently keeps the league together because any schools that leave will lose their media payments and media rights. But at some point, this grant of rights could be challenged in court, especially if the revenue gap continues to grow with no relief in sight.