The Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN have agreed to a 20-year deal and rights extension through the 2035-36 academic year, sources said.
The ACC also extended its conference grant of rights deal nine years through 2035-36, a source said.
The conference’s grant of rights makes it untenable financially for a school to leave, guaranteeing in the 20 years of the deal that a school’s media rights, including revenue, for all home games would remain with the ACC regardless of the school’s affiliation.
The ACC’s new grant of rights also automatically extends Notre Dame’s contract with the conference as a member in all sports but football through 2035-36, a source said. If the Irish forgo football independence in the next 20 years, they are contracted to join the ACC.
Prevent conference members from leaving for two decades and lock in Notre Dame? Not too shabby, John Swofford. The only way the ACC is going to suffer any of its member schools being poached in the near future is if the entire conference blows up. Hell, ask the Big 12 if they wouldn’t like that kind of stability. The extra TV money is almost a bonus.
Get The Picture 
Given the value of the conference’s men’s basketball package, I’m sure the members of the ACC did quite well. I’m assuming this means that my friends up on Tobacco Road won’t have to scramble to find the start of the SEC game on CBS while BC and Wake Forest finish their pillow fight on the 12:30 game on Raycom.
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A local channel issue…
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Believe me … I know from experiencing it for the last 14 football seasons. The CBS affiliate in Raleigh had the ACC “Game of the Week” at 12:30 which never finished in time for the SEC game to be on. You missed the CBS pre-game (I like Spencer Tillman) and were trying to find the game on the local alternate channels through the cable company.
With the advent of the ACC Network, those games won’t be available on local TV anymore just like what happened with the SEC noon game.
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Yep, I experienced that a few years ago while visiting my daughter in the Raleigh area. Had to go to a sports bar to catch all of the UGA game, actually found a pretty good one but that was aggravating.
I don’t know how anyone signs a 20 year deal at this point in time. I feel both parties will regret that over time, or will have to significantly alter the terms. It isn’t like ESPN is prospering financially, and this is in, seemingly, good financial times. Things can get much, much worse in just six months, much less twenty years out.
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If you’re up there again, the Raleigh alumni group generally has pretty good game watching parties.
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Things can get much, much worse in just three days.
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Unless we have read all the details of the contract, no telling. Word is Raycom or their equivalent will still be involved. I feel your pain.
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I don’t have to worry about it anymore since I’m back in Georgia, but I hated that while in NC.
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Ahh, the noble amateur.
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Pillsbury, Betty Crocker and Duncan are competing, potential sponsors.
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a 20 year deal seems like a long time. I wonder who is thinking they did the pounding on this one.
likely both sides.
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Swofford knows now he won’t lose anyone else to the B1G and the SEC can’t poach Virginia Tech or a couple of the NC schools to get to 16. The ACC got the security it needed, and the WWL locked in their cost of doing business. It seems to be a win for both sides.
For hoops, it should be a great deal for all of the members because they can have games on almost every night of the week across the WWL networks.
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Basketball does make a difference for them.
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This puts an end to my dream of kicking Missouri out of the SEC and getting Clemson.
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opens the door for the the Big 12 to implode – we’d like to welcome our new members from the state of Oklahoma and Texas…
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If that happens, we might as well change the name of the conference from the SEC to the CTZC – the Central Time Zone Conference.
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if that happens, we may actually be competing with the NFL for coaching compensation (and player compensation – all under the table of course – but the offshore banking accounts will be onfire and the mississippi casino chips and alabama atm cards will be off the charts with record spending) and TV rights.
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