The ACC is Done in 2030

The ACC is done in 2030! But didn't the Atlantic Coast Conference just settle its lawsuits with Florida State and Clemson? Yes but those very settlements provided a solid exit strategy for those schools to leave the conference by the year 2030.

To catch up, the conference signed a bad media deal with ESPN that lasts until 2036. Until then, ACC schools will earn hundreds of millions of dollars less than their Big Ten and SEC counterparts. In fact, those conferences will again sign even more lucrative media deals before the ACC/ ESPN deal is up in 2036.

The ACC is Done: Simply put, ACC schools cannot afford to remain in the ACC. That is why Florida State and Clemson tried to sue their way out. This week's settlement will quiet the storm for 4-5 years. It will pay schools that get higher TV ratings a little bit more money and the lower rated schools will get less money. But by the year 2030 it will also reduce the exit fees for a school if it leaves the conference. For example, if Florida State left the conference now its fees to leave plus forfeited TV money would total over $700,000,000! In 2030, that number drops below $100,000,000.

At that point the cost of doing business will allow schools like Florida State to write a check to leave and join a conference like the Big Ten, whose schools will be earning more than $100,000,000 a year by from with their TV rights.

It becomes a math problem by then. Simply put the ACC is done by the year 2030. And we all see it coming. Except the ACC doesn't! For more college sports talk tune in each weekday to Craig Shemon and Company on ESPN Southwest Florida from 2-6pm.