Another good article here:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-football-pac-12-big-ten-notre-dame-11657026907?st=hf6679h3z1ld2ygMeanwhile, in Washington and Oregon there is talk of possible legislation that would require publicly funded universities in their states to compete in the same conference, moves that would bind the Huskies to Washington State and the Ducks to Oregon State, possibly complicating any realignment move.
Politics may not be the only thing hamstringing Washington and Oregon. There’s also Notre Dame, which is already located within the Big Ten’s geographic footprint. The Fighting Irish have been able to make football independence work in this TV-driven era because of their own deal with NBC that runs through 2025. The network has exclusive rights to air Notre Dame home games and the university doesn’t have to share that revenue, reportedly about $15 million a year, with anyone.
Notre Dame also receives a payout from the ACC, with which it is a full member in sports other than football. In 2019-20, the Fighting Irish received $10.8 million in disbursements from the ACC. In 2020-21, the year when Notre Dame football temporarily joined the league due to pandemic-related scheduling concerns, the university received $34.9 million, according to federal tax records.
Should money continue flowing at unprecedented rates into the Big Ten and SEC, it may no longer make financial sense for Notre Dame to go it alone. Whether that threshold has been crossed, however, remains unclear.
An option for Notre Dame is fully joining the ACC, but it’s not one that would put them on equal financial footing with the two richest leagues. That’s because the ACC, after losing charter member Maryland, prioritized stability when renegotiating its television rights in 2016 and struck a 20-year deal with ESPN.
Six years later, stability has turned into handcuffs. Wriggling out of the ACC’s broadcast deal before 2036 comes with steep financial penalties, essentially binding the 14 members together until the contract comes closer to expiration. Worse, the ACC’s payouts to members were already the second smallest among the five major conferences and stand to fall further behind when the Big Ten’s new contract, which is expected to exceed $1 billion a year, kicks in.
Well that was not smart.
