2024 ACC media days: Storylines to watch in Charlotte

Jim Phillips opens ACC Football Kickoff on Monday in Charlotte facing questions about the conference’s future.

The ACC commissioner has been under fire with ongoing lawsuits against Clemson and Florida State. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark took a public shot at the league earlier this month, making clear the conference is still open for business and declaring it is “one of the top three conferences in America.”

Change is also coming to the ACC. The 2024 season will mark its first as a 17-team league with additions of Cal, SMU and Stanford.

On3 breaks down storylines to watch at ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte:

ACC’s ongoing legal battle with Clemson, FSU

Jim Phillips will be pressed with questions about the future direction of the conference, what Florida State and Clemson’s status is with the league and where the league stacks up with the rest of the Power 4.

There are four ongoing lawsuits: the ACC vs. Clemson; the ACC vs. Florida State; Clemson vs. the ACC; and Florida State vs. the ACC. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody released a statement last week announcing she had secured an agreement from the ACC’s attorneys to provide media rights contracts at the center of the legal battle. The ACC houses its Grant of Rights at the league office in Charlotte, where schools must go to read the document.

The agreement calls for the ACC’s 2010 multimedia rights agreement, a 2012 amendment and extension, a second amendment from 2014, a 2016 restated and amended deal, the ACC Network contract from 2016 and an August 2021 letter amendment to the current (2016) deal.

It’s a similar agreement that Florida State won access to earlier this month, however, the protective order restricts the disclosure of confidential and sensitive information during legal proceedings. Copies of documents obtained by Florida State in its suit against the ACC must be destroyed within 60 days at the end of litigation.

Under the agreement, the ACC has agreed to produce all documents no later than Aug. 1. Many of these lawsuits have been centered around landing access to the ACC’s contracts with ESPN. Florida State and Clemson argued the league’s contracts are invalid.

At the root of Florida State and Clemson’s courtroom battles is the ACC’s Grant of Rights. The schools believe they should be allowed to leave the ACC without penalty, despite agreeing to the Grant of Rights in 2013. Florida State’s attorneys previously estimated it could cost upwards of $500 million to buy out its rights back and leave the ACC.

A Grant of Rights agreement gives conferences the right to broadcast all member schools’ home games for the duration of the media rights deal. In the ACC’s case, the GOR binds the league, schools and broadcast partners until the rights deal with ESPN expires in 2036. The ACC’s current TV contract with ESPN reportedly contains a unilateral option for the TV network in 2027 that must be exercised by February 2025 to extend the deal to 2036.

Will Jim Phillips address Big 12, Brett Yormark?

Brett Yormark and the Big 12 are clearly circling to continue expansion. With ongoing discussions with Allstate, the Big 12 is at the forefront of selling naming rights. Plus, the conference continues to evaluate private equity options. Yormark even spoke about possibly selling football and basketball TV packages separately in the future.

The disparity in TV revenue between the SEC and Big Ten is only growing. The six-year, $7.8 billion College Football Playoff contract signed this spring gives 29% annually to the Big Ten and SEC, more than $21 million per school. The ACC receives 17%, roughly $13 million per institution.

Will Yormark be willing to accept private equity to offer make the pot sweeter for Florida State and Clemson? And will Jim Phillips address the Big 12’s threats?

Currently, ACC schools are pulling $39.4 million annually from TV revenue.

“As we enter this new chapter, I can assure you Big 12 schools will compete at the highest levels and they will continue to invest,” Yormark said earlier this month. “From a conference perspective, we are exploring all options. Two years later, I guess you could stay, we’re still open for business. Naming rights is one. Private equity is another.”

Miami enters ACC Football Kickoff as offseason winners

Miami’s transfer portal plans were somewhat on pause this winter as the Hurricanes went all-in on Washington State transfer quarterback Cam Ward. They finally won out after Ward announced for the NFL Draft before deciding to return to college and play at Miami. 

However, with Ward’s decision, Mario Cristobal and his staff were able to go all-in on piecing together one of the best spring portal classes. The Hurricanes landed Oregon State running back Damien Martinez, who was one of the top impact players who entered the portal in April. An All-Pac-12 first-team selection in 2023 as a sophomore, he rushed for 1,185 yards on 194 carries with a 6.1-yard average.

Houston transfer wide receiver Sam Brown has previous experience with offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson. The wideout has 1,394 career receiving yards on 113 catches and seven touchdowns.

Miami also landed big-time commitments on the line of scrimmage from defensive tackle Simeon Barrow and EDGE Tyler Baron. Barrow has 34 career appearances with 30 starts. He’s posted 110 career tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks. Baron tallied a career-high 28 tackles and six sacks while also recovering a fumble in 2023.

With so much new talent, can Cristobal’s program live up to the offseason hype and deliver this season? Miami last won a conference title in 2003. Cristobal is 12-13 in two seasons back in Coral Gables.

ACC now in three time zones

SMU made some sacrifices to join the ACC. The Mustangs agreed to not accept TV revenue in its first nine years in the conference. The College Football Playoff management committee also unanimously agreed in February upon an undisclosed amount of money for SMU that will go to the ACC. It’s still less revenue than typically distributed to power conference schools.

To counteract the loss in revenue, SMU turned to its top boosters which will pay out $200 million over the next nine years. The athletic department also announced in June it set a new fundraising record of $159 million during 2023-24. A source tells On3 that SMU only gave up Tier 1 TV rights. The Mustangs will get some TV revenue, more than they were pulling from the American Athletic Conference.

Stanford and Cal will be 30% of a whole ACC share for the next seven years. That number will jump to 70% in year eight, 75% in year nine, and then full financial shares in the 10th year, according to ESPN.