ACC grant of rights in focus during conference realignment | The State

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s grant of rights agreement, signed in 2013 and updated in 2016 when the ACC Network was formed, secured the league during nationwide conference-altering moves a decade ago.

Now that conferences are shifting again with realignment — with Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC, and UCLA and Southern Cal to the Big Ten — that document former ACC commissioner John Swofford ushered into existence is under serious scrutiny.

On one hand, an argument could be made that the ACC would be in history’s dustbin without the grant of rights. On the other, it’s causing the league to fall further behind the SEC and Big Ten and closer to irrelevance. So, what is the grant of rights? Why does it matter? Is it ironclad?

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Here are some answers:

What does ‘grant of rights’ mean?

The ACC’s grant of rights contract states member schools “irrevocably and exclusively grants to the conference during the term all rights necessary for the conference to perform the contractual obligations of the conference expressly set forth in the ESPN agreement..”

Simply put, any TV revenue a school is due from the ACC’s contract with ESPN is conference property through June 30, 2036 regardless of whether the school remains an ACC member or leaves for another conference.

The ACC collects revenue, mostly from its media rights contract, and distributes it back evenly to its member schools. During the 2020-21 school year, the ACC raked in nearly $580 million which was split between the 15 schools.

Of note, Notre Dame, a non-football member, doesn’t get the same disbursement as the other schools because it has its own football television deal with NBC that it doesn’t share with the ACC. However, due to the pandemic, the Irish played ACC football in 2020 and thus shared some of its NBC revenue with the league that season only.

So, hypothetically, if Florida State leaves for the SEC, the ACC would get any media revenue generated from athletic events on its campus through summer 2036 even if those are SEC games played in Tallahassee.

How much money would it cost a school to leave?

It’s their annual revenue distribution from the league multiplied by the number of years remaining on the grant of rights contract.

In simple terms, if a school gets $40 million a year from the ACC and 10 years remain in the contract, that’s $400 million.

But the revenue distribution is growing rapidly. In 2011, for example, the ACC’s revenue was $167.2 million. A decade later, it’s an all-time record approaching $580 million.

How can a school get out of it?

Well, as the saying goes, everything is negotiable. But the terms “irrevocably and exclusively” certainly look hard to parse.

But even as the ACC’s media revenue grows, the Big Ten and SEC are on pace to bring in a billion dollars each annually and come close to doubling the ACC’s haul.

So, as time progresses, a tipping point will be reached where a school can receive so much more money from the SEC or Big Ten in the long run that it can absorb forfeiting its ACC revenue for a few years.

With 14 years remaining on the current grant of rights, that day is not close.

So what’s next?

If a school — or schools — really wants to leave, a smart team of lawyers could challenge the grant of rights in court in an effort to invalidate it.

Let’s say Miami, Florida State and Clemson want to join the SEC. They could band together to sue the ACC seeking relief from the courts. Strength in numbers, right?

That’s quite an ugly scenario. But it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. These days, nothing is.

This story was originally published July 06, 2022 5:35 PM.