Paul Finebaum discusses his negativity surrounding ACC’s future

The ACC is somewhere in no man’s land in the midst of the conference realignment discussion. That’s because, to Paul Finebaum, the league and their schools are still in a bit of a standoff about how to move forward considering their television deal with ESPN.

Finebaum discussed the ACC’s position and future on the ‘Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast’ this week. He said that the schools have obviously had no issue discussing their displeasure with the ACC’s deal. He then added that, if not for significant penalties from the conference, many may be gone already.

“Well, part of it concerns the deal they have, of course, with ESPN. It’s always an interesting journey to talk about such things like this. But it goes into 2035 or something like that,” Finebaum said. “I think, with expansion, you have a number of very anxious schools. Florida State has been bold about it. The president of Florida State has spoken about it. Clemson, others as well, who, probably, if they could get out without a severe penalty, would be gone. And there would be suitors.”

“It would be between North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, Florida State, maybe Miami? The SEC and the Big Ten would probably be interested parties for a lot of reasons. But they can’t get out. They’ve been pretty vocal about it at the recent ACC Meetings. There was a lot said,” said Finebaum. “They can’t leave.”

Still, it all stems back to the deal that the ACC made with ESPN in order to create the ACC Network. When that channel launched in August 2019, he believes they made the bed that they’re currently laying in right there and then.

“It’s a long story so I won’t tell the whole story. But, if you go back a number of years, the ACC wanted what the SEC and the Big Ten had. That was its own network,” explained Finebaum. “ESPN made a deal, they gave them the ACC Network, and, in return, they signed this grant of rights deal for a very long time, which seemed like a good deal at the time.”

There’s no doubt that the SEC and Big Ten have broken off from the pack in realignment. That has left the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12 to fend for themselves and keep pace the best way they know how.

Even so, the Big 12 and Pac-12 are seemingly active in their efforts to come up with solutions. Comparatively, the ACC is the one many perceive to be in a stalemate with their programs within their contract.

That doesn’t sound like it’ll be changing anytime soon either based on Finebaum’s evaluation of the situation out on the east coast.