When we joined this conference in 2004, we did so coming in with the full understanding that the ACC was positioning itself to be a major power player in college football going forward. And why wouldn't they be? They already had Florida State, and when invites were extended to Miami and Virginia Tech in the summer of 2003, they had secured a conference that comprised of a member of each of the last 4 BCS National Championship Games. It was set to be a perfect marriage that set off a seismic shift in the landscape.
Except... That never happened.
Shortly after our entry, Boston College, a small private school in a professional sports city known primarily for Doug Flutie making one pass in the 1990s, was somehow extended an invite in a move that still makes you scratch your head. And then only a few years after that, the ACC follows it up with invites to Louisville, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh, in moves that the conference were not shy about their reasoning at the time. It was about basketball. The Tobacco Road schools were worried that their power and influence in the conference was being threatened so they made their move to make sure their bread continued to be buttered, completely losing focus on where everything about college athletics was going in the big picture.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech was holding up its end of the bargain. Annually carrying the conference's flag as the main player on the national scene to the point where ESPN personalities were joking that we should rename the ACC as the Virginia Tech Conference, or at least the All Tech Conference, given Georgia Tech's ability to contend as well. No other school carried their own water during this time. Not a single one. Florida State fell into chaos with Bobby Bowden's prime falling further away, Miami completely collapsed under a revolving door of bad hires, Clemson was an annual mess under Tommy Bowden, Georgia Tech reverted to the triple option to win games, and the only other team to reach the high rankings that VT did was Boston College for a short stint in 2007. North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Wake Forest, Syracuse and Pittsburgh all saw long sustained periods of poor performance on the field with little to no financial investment into their own programs, content with allowing their basketball prowess to remain their identity.
And in this time, what did the conference as a whole do? They signed away our regional broadcasting rights for pennies on the dollar to Raycom Sports, where the son of the Commissioner of the ACC at the time happened to be employed by and actively part of the negotiation for Raycom, only to follow that up with one of the absolute worst overall TV deals in college sports. Meanwhile, the SEC and Big Ten build football superpowers by carefully selecting schools that grew the footprint in both competitive play and carriage rights, monopolizing the competitive balance of the playoff, and effectively locking the ACC and Big 12 out of the power balance.
And now we're at the point of the competitive cycle where we're at the the moment of needing to rebuild (much like Clemson and Florida State were 15 years ago) and we're now being force fed a situation where we're being forced to accept unequal revenue sharing based on on field results, a conference that is looking to expand based on academic and non-rev competitive play, and a network provider that has us by the balls. What are we even doing anymore? How is this what is best for the future of Virginia Tech anymore? The thanks we get for keeping this conference afloat 10-15 years ago is our face shoved back into the mud by those very same schools we propped up at that time.
And on top of all of this, now we're being told by the conference that our student athletes are now going to have to travel to California twice a year in every sport to compete in conference play. Most of the players who will be doing this are non-scholarship athletes playing in non-revenue sports, completely screwing up their actual education due to travel (which is even worse for the athletes from those schools who now are exclusively traveling across country to play sports every week, but I digress). You know, because somehow having some of our students play sportsball in Atlantic Coast Conference games in California is apparently going to raise the academic profile of Virginia Tech.
To hell with all of this. Its time for Virginia Tech to wake the hell up and do what is best for us going forward. We have a legitimate football brand with a strong regional following. We shouldn't have to put up with the bullshit we're dealing with now. The ACC failed us and we should have absolutely no shame in turning our backs on them now. Its time to team up with FSU and Clemson and do what is best for us by getting the hell out.
Comments
If there was a reasonable way for us to get out, we would be out. But just like the FSU threats, they are empty. If there was a plausible way for us to leave, pretty sure FSU would have found it and left already.
Does anybody know the actual buyout of the GoR? I've heard it reported anywhere from 120-300 million.
There is an exit fee of $120 million to leave the ACC that is on top of the GoR issue. The expansion articles detailed our media rights value as approximately $24 million a year. So 13 years @ 24 million a year would be another $312 million to leave this year. It goes down by approximately 100 million every four years.
We could pay that off in 6 years with the current Big10 deal or 4 years with the current SEC deal if we knew we were a take in either conference, as opposed to waiting another 13 years for this deal to expire.
This issue is you aren't paying ACC media yearly payout but SEC/BIG 10 so the buyout based on 50 million yearly tv payout is going to be between 500-700 million to leave today.
I believe the exit fee is 3 years of conference distributions, hence as the conference distributions increase, so does the exit fee.
Unfortunately true on the GOR and until we start winning reliably again what conference is going to give us a landing spot?
meh
BOHICA
Alum07 today....
also, from the CG's LOL
so...if adding more schools dilutes the tv payout and lowers it for everyone, does that mean the GoR worth less if we leave?
I think the logic here is that the 3 new schools will get the same per school payout as everyone else, so it shouldn't impact the buyout and GoR of all existing members. The new schools are just forfeiting all or a portion of that money back to the conference to split among the current members.
yeah, sorry I should have made that clear that I was joking. I know there's no silver lining here. That's not true. Silver lining is that ESPN has to pay more since they pay per school. Very very slim lining on an otherwise black cloud.
sorry this isn't the silver lining u think it is. it's still a monumentally shit deal in ESPNs favor. This just makes them more money.
And here we are. After much posturing and claiming to be part of the Mag 7, once this was in Sands' hands, this is the direction we went. I am not surprised.
I as a fan and alumnus need to realize that the administration at VT does not emphasize football the way we previously did in the 1990s and 2000s. Football served its purpose, and Sands is content with making incremental moves upward in academia versus prioritizing sports. This move was likely motivated by future AAU membership considerations. This is the direction we are headed. And that's not a bad thing, I'm happy VT is really making great strides and bringing in vast research dollars and academic endowments. But I do seriously think our appetite for competing at the top level in football just isn't there in this new modern CFB landscape. We will see, but I just don't see us wanting to be a Clemson or PSU type of football program. Expectations I think need to be calibrated accordingly.
There's best for the school, and there is what is best for football. Those things dont have to align, and I have to believe Sands sees it that way, too. Our motto is Ut Prosim, not Ut Football Conference Championships.
They typically do at OSU, Michigan, Alabama, Florida, Clemson, etc. 5 of those 6 schools are very similar, if not better, academic institutions than VT.
The most concerning part of this debacle is the fact that our leadership has no interest in positioning us to be ready to bolt. They are going to bury their heads in the sand and then say poor little old VT when we got screwed. I can promise you FSU and Clemson will not be.
Maryland a founding member of the ACC saw the writing on the wall long before any of us and did what was best for their University. Someone with some balls needs to step in. The shake up in the make up is at it's tipping point and we are about to be FUCKED.
IIRC the whole Maryland leaving situation is what really kicked off the whole GoR thing.
Maryland has been the destructive force behind this the whole time. The story checks out. They weren't content riddling the DMV interstates with their broken-down cars and crappy turn signal usage.
It may take patience but Clemson, FSU, VT, Miami, and I'd probably throw in UNC - will all be gone in time and likely to the SEC.
The Big 10 made its strategy clear by going to the west coast - and it just isn't going to make sense for either side. For the SEC - they would have already taken who they want from the Big 12 unless they were holding out for better ACC brands.
My future SEC 20 team league:
SEC West:
Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss St., Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma, Mizzou,
SEC East:
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Clemson, FSU, Miami, UNC, VT
Vandy gets the boot somehow lol. They can join Duke, UVA, and Stanford in a very smart but shitty alliance.
I like this. I think they keep Vandy and leave the U out. Miami doesn't really fit the SEC culture and Vandy is established.
My concern is just where is Tech going to go if or when the ACC implodes. Not sure the Power 2 would want the Hokies. Better work real hard to upgrade football and basketball while in the ACC or they will definitely be left behind.
Who gets into a mega-SEC over VT realistically? 20 teams is probably the minimum and could very well be more - no doubt VT needs to become more relevant again but the fit and value for both sides is there.
This is the big unknown.
It probably won't improve for us in the ACC. My other alma mater, PSU, has been the redheaded stepchild of the Big Ten since they joined 30+ years ago.
I'd absolutely peel off a chunk of change for a "get-out-of-GOR-jail-free" fund if such a thing existed. No, it's not practical, it would take far too long to raise the money needed, but college football left practical behind long ago. I'm confident we could raise that money before 2036.
I said this move was dumb the other day, and it has not gotten less dumb since then. I've been around long enough to recognize a move made solely so management could say they did something, with no thought to its effectiveness.
VT being a yes vote is, at best, academics cutting off athletics at the pass once again. As the kids say, I hate it here.
Ok Alum07, you stroke a $1B check and we'll leave.
Otherwise, there's nothing we can do. The GOR is too strong, and we don't have the cash to get out of it. I'm also frustrated, but this is a longtime issue starting with poor leadership and stewardship from Steger, Weaver, and the ACC.
The fact is: we're stuck.
Related:
This image is why the ACC is/was not sustainable. It's just a bunch of schools with no common goals cobbled together.
Looks like the AAC has gone the opposite way on considering Washington State and Oregon State and they had significant monies on the line as the proposed merger was reported to have been a new TV deal worth $14M per season, up from $5.5M on their current deal.
AAC commisioner Mike Aresco released this statement; "We have concluded, however, that the best way to proceed for our outstanding student-athletes is to not look westward. Instead, we plan to focus any expansion efforts on schools that allow for sensible and sustainable competition and student-athlete well-being within our strong geographic footprint,"
This is a bit of revisionists' history:
Honestly, there wasn't really another good school in the footprint, and, at the time, no one in college football was willing to leave their geographic footprint. The other option out there was WVU. Best case, WVU was marginally better than the other schools.
IMO Swofford had 1-2 unforgivable fuckups:
This is false - Existing conference members will travel California once every two years. Part of the negotiation - in addition to taking less money - was that these new teams would do the bulk of the traveling (Source).
Not sure what you want VT to do here... Do you know how to break the GoR?