. While that’s not a small thing — especially for the most tradition-steeped hoops league in the land — it sure beats what the ACC has had to navigate the previous 18 months.
It wasn’t dead, but was declared to be dying on more than one occasion. It was at war with itself, with two petulant (but important) members assailing league credibility and stability from within. It was accused of being reactive instead of proactive; of being a realignment loser; of being left behind in the football power struggle.
It was all wrong. The ACC is alive and relatively well. In the eat-or-be-eaten world of college athletics, it is off the endangered species list.
It’s less of a comeback story than a survivor’s tale. Dating back to early August 2023, when the Pac-12 finally collapsed, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and the league were under siege. Now they’ve come out on the other side.
Stability was locked in last week when ESPN officially picked up a nine-year option on its media-rights agreement with the ACC, running through the 2035-36 season. That’s a long time to guarantee anything in this industry, and in truth all bets are off when we hit the ’30s and other conference media-rights deals approach expiration. But for the next five years at least, the ACC should remain a major player with a stable membership.
The SEC and Big Ten will continue to hog much of the available revenue, which is simply the law of the jungle at this point. But the ACC and Big 12 are viable power conferences that should remain competitive across the board — and the ACC is the better positioned of those two.
The ACC put two teams in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff this past season. It has put four teams in the last three men’s basketball Final Fours. It has placed eight teams in the last nine Final Fours of both the men’s and women’s tournaments. It …
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