College Football

New ACC deal could halt conference realignment for a long time

Four of five power conferences now have similar deals, leaving very few major realignment possibilities on the table.

By Rodger Sherman Apr 22, 2013, 1:20pm EDT

The ACC will announce a 15-school grant of media rights deal through 2027, North Carolina radio host David Glenn, also of ACCSports.com, reports. CBS Sports' Jeremy Fowler and ESPN's Brett McMurphy have since confirmed. This would essentially curb speculation of schools leaving the conference for the immediate future.

Update: This is official, but no other details are available.

Such a deal, in layman's terms, means that every school is granting the conference the revenue from certain broadcast rights. Even if a school were to leave, its TV money would stay within the league until the end of the deal. Neither the school nor its new league would make TV money, meaning all ACC schools would be completely off limits.

So let's do math. If #ACC grant of rights is 15 years, a school leaving the league would forfeit about $300 million.
— David Teel (@DavidTeelatDP) April 22, 2013

It's an even bolder step than the high exit fees some leagues have. A similar deal staved off the demise of the Big 12 when it had been reduced to just 10 teams. The Big Ten Pac-12 also have deals like this, leaving only the SEC among power leagues.

There had been talk of several teams leaving - Florida State was always a fun candidate to join a league such as the Big 12, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia Tech were supposedly offered to join the Big Ten - but this likely shelves that for now, and the unanimous nature of the deal shows everybody was on board.

Note that 15 teams likely does not include Notre Dame football, which has its own deal with NBC for its home games, but it does lock in the Irish's other sports.