ASU fan here. I come in peace.
There have been rumors of ACC and Pac12 partnership (play conference games against each other and have champs play each other).
If this partnership occurs and Miami, FSU, and Clemson (maybe Oregon) were offered 20-30 percent more revenue year than other conference members, would Miami consider staying in the ACC long term?
If keeping up with the SEC/Big10 is the end game, this proposal may incentivize the top brands to stay (assuming the yearly payout it close to the Big10/SEC).
In this scenario, Miami could earn similar $ per year to the SEC and not have play in the SEC gauntlet
Thoughts?
You have come in peace and made a thoughtful post. Much respect.
As a 35-year UM student/alum/booster/season-ticket-holder, I can tell you that unequal revenue is not such a great "solution", unless you had very specific reasons and rationales for it. Granted, Miami's past experience was in the Big East, but the REASON why we had to make a change and go to the ACC was because our annual conference revenue fluctuated so greatly, as it was based heavily on football post-season and basketball NCAA success.
Now, if you toggled the "unequal revenue-share" to TV markets or something like that, it might make more practical sense. You would have unequal money, but it would be PREDICTABLE unequal money, so you would not have wild year-over-year fluctuations.
Keep in mind, though, "TV markets" would be different from "brand". For instance, F$U is very well known, but it's in a very small market within Florida. Even if you "gave" F$U the Penasacola and/or Jacksonville markets, I think it would be a huge stretch to give them credit for Orlando and Tampa, what with UCF and USF being there.
I have tremendous respect for the west coast teams, but y'all are FAAAAR apart (geographically). I hear your concerns about "making sure Miami gets more money", but in the southeast US, there are also a lot of other issues related to rivalries and bragging rights and "who is relevant" and whatnot. I do believe that there is a healthy fear that if any ACC teams "stay" in the ACC instead of jumping to the SEC/Big 10, then we lose out on recruits, we lose out on post-season, we lose out on AP/Coaches rankings, you name it.
At the end of the day, even if you gave Miami and F$U "more" money, you'd essentially have to give Duke and GaTech and Syracuse and BC "less" money. While it might seem like they are "OK" with that today, I'm not so sure that is great for the future, and I'm not so sure they don't eventually find another option. Plus, some of those schools (GaTech, BC) are in pretty sizable TV markets, so I'm not sure on what basis we would pay them LESS.
Finally, years ago during the last round of expansion, I brought up the idea of an "A&P Network", a combination of the ACC and the Pac 12. I don't know if this is the case everywhere, but my cable carrier in Florida has SIX channels for the Pac 12, and only ONE (of the two) ACC channels. It's bizarre. So I have always thought that if you could bracket both coasts, and provide Saturday content from 11 am (EST) to midnight (PST), you'd have a very compelling block of games for football fanatics to watch all day long. Same with hoops. Same with baseball. Even if we didn't use all eight (combined) channels, even if we had FOUR channels, we would have, by far, the best programming. And the most eyeballs.
Never happened though. And I think it might be too late. The ONLY way that this works is:
1. Convince ND to join the ACC
2. Take Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, Houston, BYU, Kansas, K-State, and Oklahoma State to the Pac 12
3. Take UCF, Cincy, and USF to the ACC
18 team ACC. 18 team Pac 12.
NOW you've got something.
SEC and Big 10 can continue to have a d!ck-measuring contest. ACC and Pac 12 create an affiliation that spans both coasts. VERY competitive in California, Texas, and Florida, the three largest states. So-so in NY and PA (Syracuse/Pitt). Decent in IL (lots of ND fans in Chicago). Toeholds in OH and GA, the 7th and 8th largest states. Dominant in NC, the 9th largest state. Fvck Michigan, the 10th largest state.
It could work. Whether the ACC and Pac 12 have the leadership to get stuff done quickly, who knows?