AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Contrary to frenzied social media forecasts, the ACC remained intact Tuesday.
The conference’s annual spring meetings here didn’t dissolve into British Parliamentary or WWE SmackDown chaos. Member schools didn’t scatter to the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 or even threaten mass secession.
But as Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock made clear, folks have explored potential alternatives. And that shouldn’t be revelatory.
During these turbulent times for college athletics, anything less would be dereliction of duty.
But as Babcock also stressed, after marked tension among ADs Monday, the focus quickly turned to crafting a new revenue-sharing model for the ACC’s 15 presidents to consider.
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The source of Monday’s anxiety was renewed media speculation about the enterprise’s economic heavyweights, the Big Ten and SEC, eyeing ACC schools. Then, The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy tweeted that the athletic directors from Virginia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina, N.C. State, Florida State, Clemson and Miami have met together and with lawyers to ascertain how binding the ACC’s grant of media rights is.
Signed by the league’s 15 presidents in 2016, the document confers each school’s television rights to the conference through 2036 and, in theory, precludes members from leaving.
Babcock confirmed that he and colleagues from the six other schools McMurphy mentioned have discussed possible options.
“I would classify it as a number of conversations,” Babcock told The Times-Dispatch, “usually in small groups, on interpretations of grant of rights, of bylaws of the league, of options that may be out there. But as you know, the grant of rights has been looked at a lot of times by a lot of people.”
Virginia AD Carla Williams politely declined an interview request, joking that “Whit speaks for both us.”
Babcock said the conversations weren’t as organized as many interpreted Monday and that several included subsets of the seven. Topics included not only the grant of rights, but also ACC bylaws to ascertain what is required to change the revenue-sharing formula — at least 10 of 15 presidents must approve.
Realignment chatter “does make everybody paranoid and jumpy and consider trust,” Babcock said. “I absolutely feel for my colleagues (Monday) that were blindsided, and if the commissioner (Jim Phillips) was, him as well. These jobs are hard enough without something knocking you upside the head. ...
“There was probably a number of things said yesterday that needed to be said. I think the commissioner did a great job with it. You’ve got 15 schools and 15 different approaches. After the initial shock of some of the news reported, I think it was productive after that.
“I think it was less than ideal that it came out, but it’s been a catalyst for some real conversation and maybe getting to things a little faster that we’ve been working on as the ACC.”
Babcock declined comment on whether Virginia Tech and/or the seven schools together have met with other conferences. Why the reticence?
“The tough thing about being an AD in times of conference realignment, real or perceived, is there’s nothing you can really say that’s the perfect answer,” he said. “If you are undyingly loyal to your conference, which the ACC’s been great to us, then your fan base thinks (you’re ignoring reality). If you come out and say you want to keep your options open, you’re not exactly making friends in the room and with the commissioner.”
The AD room now hones in on straying from the ACC’s decades-old policy of equal revenue distributions. The most likely model would earmark new television dollars from the expanded College Football Playoff for the conference’s leading football and men’s basketball programs.
That metric would be based on success moving forward and not at all on television ratings, which fluctuate wildly based on network designation, kickoff time and opponent.
“Do we think that will close the gap that everyone incessantly talks about?” Babcock said. “Not all the way, but making strides toward that, keeping in contact financially with the Big Ten and SEC and hopefully become a clear-cut third (among the Power Five) and separate out from the (Pac-12 and Big 12).”
Babcock professed confidence in the revenue consultants from Fishbait Solutions hired by the ACC to further monetize the ACC Network, and in Phillips’ ability to navigate a minefield he couldn’t have envisioned when he succeeded John Swofford two-plus years ago.
“There’s nobody in that room that doesn’t think the commissioner isn’t working his tail off to help us out,” Babcock said. “The commissioner job has changed drastically, and it’s impossible, but he’s the best guy to tackle it.”