It's time to lift the glowing purple orb, because the civil war within the ACC is over.
According to multiple reports on Monday, Clemson, Florida State and the ACC are expected to vote Tuesday to settle four ongoing lawsuits and counter-suits after coming to an agreement on a new revenue structure that will keep the league intact moving forward.
As part of the agreement, 40 percent of will reserve the ACC's TV contract to be split equally among the conference's "legacy" brands (read: not Cal, Stanford and SMU) with 60 percent going toward the brand initiative and doled out to the schools that win on the field and drive TV ratings.
In short: to ensure its survival, the ACC has found a way to steal from the poor to placate the rich.
While ESPN described the TV formula as "tricky," the conference's top brands are expected to rake in an additional $15 million a year while the bottom earners could see a reduction of around $7 million a year.
For the Wake Forests of the world, a $7 million reduction was more palatable than life in the free market in an ACC without Clemson, Florida State and perhaps others. It's a similar arrangement to the one former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe concocted to keep that conference from splitting apart in 2010. As history taught us, that plan worked, for a time.
The ACC signed a 20-year extension to the conference's Grant of Rights in 2016 in order for ESPN to create and fund the ACC Network. Florida State, and then Clemson, sued the conference, claiming the conference and its leadership failed in its fiduciary duties to its members as the conference was left behind by the SEC and Big Ten in the early part of this decade. The ACC counter-sued, claiming essentially, "You knew what you were signing up for." A Grant of Rights contract -- which, as the name implies, grants the media rights of its signees to the conference whether the Seminoles competed in the ACC, SEC or NFC -- has never been challenged in court. It also remained to be seen how interested the SEC, B1G or others would be in Florida State, Clemson, or others. With the risks so high on both sides, it made sense to settle.
In January, ESPN agreed to pick up its option on the ACC contract through 2036, a sign that the conference and its leading members were working toward a compromise.
The TV formula is expected to be based upon a rolling 5-year average of Nielsen ratings. In 2024, Georgia Tech and Miami appeared in the most highly-watched games (four apiece), followed by Clemson (three), Florida State and SMU (two apiece). In 2023, Florida State easily led the league with eight such appearances. It remains to be seen how the ACC will compile the formula. Would, say, Miami's trip to Florida count since that's part of the SEC's TV package? How will the ACC calibrate viewership on the unrated ACC Network? The league has also previously announced plans to have Notre Dame play more of its six ACC games a year against the conference's top brands, which means fewer against the ACC's middle- and lower-class.
The ACC could also award more money to schools that spend more on athletics.
The ACC is also expected to approve changes to the Grant of Rights with declining financial penalties for exiting the conference as time goes on, particularly after 2030. The Big Ten's TV contract expires after 2029-30, and the SEC's after 2033-34.
Tuesday's vote will not secure the ACC's long-term future, but the near-term is safe. And that's good enough for now.