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Message: [QUOTE="Lou_C, post: 1694661, member: 3201"] Make no mistake, ESPN doesn't just spread out games to Raycom Sports like it's their preference. The ACC mandated as part of the contract that ESPN subleases games to Raycom. Raycom is an outdated business model, and once one of the biggest players in college sports television, it is totally obsolete in the modern era. It would not exist had the ACC not requested (required) it's television partner to agree to sublease a certain amount of games for Raycom to produce and distribute. It is a handout. ESPN has the means and ability to do everything that Raycom does. ESPN produces and distributes games on local OTA (how do those SEC games get on local tv at 12:30 without Raycom I wonder), and ESPN subleases content they can't distribute to Fox Sports and other outlets. The fact Raycom Sports is even a business right now is solely because the ACC insisted they be given this handout, or else they would have gone out of business. That's not remotely disputable, it's acknowledged by everyone. Everyone else left Raycom, only the ACC acted like a charity rather than a business. And it's not without consequence...if Raycom Sports is making enough money to employ 50 people and stay alive as a company, that means they're monetizing well above what they're paying for their subleased content. Without that Raycom stipulation, that revenue would be going directly to ESPN without the Raycom middleman taking their cut. So that middleman takes money out of ESPN's pocket, and it reduces the value of the ACC to ESPN. Which affects what the ACC gets paid. How much? Who knows. $1M per team? $4M per team? Is there a point where it is worth it at all to prop up Raycom for anybody other than the grey haired Carolina country club crowd? But the ACC did it, either because Swofford's son works at Raycom Sports, or for "old times sake". I think his son working there is more a symptom than a cause. It's the kind of loyalty thing that lets Swofford slap backs and sip mint juleps at Charlotte country clubs and get invited to cotillions by old important families. But it does nothing positive for anyone outside Tobacco road, which is now a major portion of the league, and it's a bad example of the ACC acting like something other than a business with a directive to maximize value to it's members. There was a time that was all conferences, but the ACC clung to it long past anyone else, and we're paying for it. [/QUOTE]

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