BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

I honestly feel bad for those who don't get these inside joke references.

 

There's actually a Buc-ee's coming out of Florence now before you get to South of the Border.

 

You mean they never sausage a place?

 

Keep screaming, kids!

 

Florida State is already gone, it's just a question of are they going to announce on the August 15 deadline (not likely) or wait a year to make sure their dance partners can align in a similar exit strategy. They will have to pay the buyout and the GoR on annual basis, but the rights costs will be lowered by about a $100 million. So instead of paying upwards of $30 million/annually, they are paying a little north of $20 million/annually. I know people assume they are flying blind, but when the school president, AD and damn near entire board of trustees are willing to go on the record and say they can't stay, they probably know something that this board doesn't. Probably.

Clemson is in a similar boat, just less hawkish about it. Wasn't surprised to see N.C. State as a no either. North Carolina as a no surprised me. I figured Syracuse would say no before North Carolina.

The ACC is going to keep California and Stanford on the vine because they will eventually need them to replace schools that will leave. I also think they are going to be Notre Dame's football home if that happens because they would immediately be among the favorites and they could play those schools with similar commitments to academics/athletics. Plus the ACC would NEED them. And Notre Dame likes to be wanted. Notre Dame playing Stanford, Cal, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Pitt and North Carolina annually is a dream scenario for them. Conference games that have a print in three different regions? Sign them up.

 

If Notre Dame committed to full-time ACC football, would that bump up the contract enough to get FSU and Clemson to stay? Otherwise I can’t see the Irish abandoning independence to be part of what would clearly be the fourth-place conference in a sport where about 2.5 conferences are going to matter.

 

NBC has determined ND is worth $22 million a year. Why should ESPN think otherwise, and give them more money? So an extra $22 million, divided 15 ways after the conference takes its share, would be a little over a million bucks a year per school. Great bargain.

 

The shitty TV contract is still in existence, that wouldn't change. But with a couple of schools gone they would be able to give ND a sweetener from the buyout money to make it worth it. Or they would allow Notre Dame to get another NBC deal individually on top of the ACC's media rights payments. That could be likely because frankly whatever Notre Dame brings is of great financial value than giving them an extra $15-20M annually, plus you'd get 4-5 ACC teams on another network.

 

That deal was done a decade ago. The finances have changed drastically.

 

This is why I don't think ND goes anywhere, unless it has to.

Conferences will still swoon over them and they get their pick on who to play. Unless/until schools and conferences tell them to fuck off until they join up, there's no reason for them to go anywhere.

 

If the GoR is solid -- and has anybody made a claim that it's not? -- they're not just paying out an exit fee; they're unable to collect any TV money derived from any conference. They don't just forfeit what they'd have gotten from the ACC; they're forfeiting what they'd nominally get from the SEC.
That fan base hasn't been in the habit of funding big-ticket items. They were late to the facilities game, for example.
On top of that, it is not a fan base of generational wealth and generational institutional ties to the same degree as others. Men only began attending in the late 1940s, I think.
This ain't Texas oil money, which can fill $30,000,000 gaps in real time for several consecutive years.

The big tell was the YouTube broadcast a couple of weeks back: a vile mix of pandering, politics and performance art. The chair of the Trustees or one of the other people on there intimated they had unlocked the GoR. Wouldn't say it outright, though.
If you've really figured this out and crafted an argument that gets you out of the ACC and convinces somebody else to take you, you don't even hit as much. You keep it close to the vest. You make a strategic leak to one person, the commissioner of the SEC. Then you use that to get a meeting. Your argument is an item in your case statement for inclusion. If the SEC agrees you have a winning argument, great. But anything other than an immediate and enthusiastic co-sign and you're still stuck.

 

I have no clue about high finance.

Sportico reported a week or so ago that FSU had made a deal with JPMorgan Chase:
Florida State University is working with JPMorgan Chase to explore how the school’s athletic department could raise capital from institutional funds, such as private equity, according to multiple people familiar with the plans.

What exactly does that mean to "raise capital from institutional funds"? Is FSU dipping into its endowment to hand over a bunch of cash to a third party that swears it can turn $50 million into $150 million? Any insight appreciated.

https://www.sportico.com/business/f...morgan-private-equity-funding-acc-1234733152/