McMurphy: ND to join ACC as Partial Member

[OrangePA]

Notre Dame will join ACC as full member w/exception of football. ND will play 5 football games annually vs. ACC, sources told @ESPN

Does this at least eliminate the possibility that Rutgers and/or UConn will join the ACC?

I can live with this if it that is the case and if this move assures the long term existence and stability of the ACC.

Otherwise, I really don't like ND and don't want to be in a conference with the school on a part-time basis.

 

[Scooch]

Scooch, ND was committed to playing BE football games as well. I'll believe it when I see it. I'm still working my way through the articles, but does it even say *how* they will play 5 ACC teams? If they are just partial members, what's stopping them from just playing FSU/Clemson/BC/Pitt/GT/whoever every single year? But that's fine. Again, all that matters is that Clemson and FSU are happy.

WVU found a way to exit with a $20mil exit fee. Think about that--WVU. $50mil really isn't a big deal. It's all about the grant of rights.

Not contractually.

You think they're going to welch on the ACC now? Seriously?

 

[SU2NASA]

Read Swarbrick's quote:

"We have monitored the changing conference landscape for many months and have concluded that moving to the ACC is the best course of action for us," said Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame Vice President and Director of Athletics. "We are able to maintain our historic independence in football, join in the ACC's non-BCS bowl package, and provide a new and extremely competitive home for our other sports."

Then this is fail. Except for nailing the coffin for UConn and Rutgers, which is smaller win.

 

[OrangePA]

Sucks that ND is part of ACC non BCS Bowls. However exit fee now over $50 million. Wow.

Agreed.

 

[Scooch]

It was clear that the administration at FSU and Clemson had no desire to leave the ACC. That conversation was driven by their fanbases and boards of trustees.

Their presidents signing on for a $50 million exit fee is a nifty end around of those constituencies.

 

[Cuseman78]

We don't know that. We know adding members in 2004 required 7/9 approval, why should increasing the exit fee be different?

Read the press release. Unanimous approval.

 

[orangecuse]

Some of you people can't possibly have any business experience.

Put aside the ND hate for a moment and think this through...

ND is the ONLY school currently not in a Big 5 conference that has ANY significant incremental value. ($$$)

ND has committed to playing 5 ACC football games a year. Other ACC schools play 9. That's 55%. Each of those 5 games will be on TV ($$$) and secure sell out crowds when ACC schools host ($$$).

ND is part of the ACC's bowl package. Bowls love ND because they draw big crowds and strong TV ratings. The ACC now has additional leverage to sign high-value bowl affiliations. ($$$)

ND fits the ACC's academic profile perfectly, and brings a solid program to the best hoops conference in the nation. They also have top-tier Olympic sports -- you may not care, but an athletic league does. (Brand)

I won't hold my breath, but someday if ND decides to join a conference full-time for football, it'll be the ACC ($$$).

The ACC is now without question the premiere east coast athletic conference. (sponsorship $$$)

Honestly, this is a no brainer. You get significant financial value and increased brand strength, all for them playing 5 games a year instead of 9.

:bang:

I guess it depends on what kind of business you're refering to.

ND obviously has a lot of leverage...they can easily embrace the beneficially weighted model...5%, etc. of something is better than 100% of nothing. It will be interesting to see/measure, just how tangible the return is for the full member schools vs. the chosen one's percentage.

 

[Townie72]

umm. the SEC has won the past 6 national championships in football.

There's no Vanderbilt or Mississippi State in the ACC lacrosse league. Top to bottom it has power teams who are all candidate to win the NC.

 

[DomeStranger]

So will an ACC member game count as a league game or not? With a 9 game schedule + ND ... a team might only have 2 elective games? Sounds like a difficult schedule, not any wiggle room.

 

[Cuseman78]

Does this at least eliminate the possibility that Rutgers and/or UConn will join the ACC?

I can live with this if it that is the case and if this move assures the long term existence and stability of the ACC.

Otherwise, I really don't like ND and don't want to be in a conference with the school on a part-time basis.

Looks to be. Reports today say the ACC has no interest in moving to 16 teams. Add in the 50 mill dollar exit fee, and today goes along way in assuring long term stability for our future conference. Perfect world, I don't love ND either but if it improves my schools standing in college athletics, I'm all for it.

 

[Bayside44]

There's no Vanderbilt or Mississippi State in the ACC lacrosse league. Top to bottom it has power teams who are all candidate to win the NC.

Townie - are Billy O and I going to see you at SU Sportsnight this evening in downtown DC?

 

[SUinNYC]

ND has committed to playing 5 ACC football games a year. Other ACC schools play 9. That's 55%. Each of those 5 games will be on TV ($$$) and secure sell out crowds when ACC schools host ($$$)

Honestly, this is a no brainer. You get significant financial value and increased brand strength, all for them playing 5 games a year instead of 9.

Could not agree with this more. ND is a full member is all sports and a partial member in football. The only reason it's not being sold that way in the press is that ND's big walleted donors would flip the out if it was positioned that way because they make donations to keep their FB independence. But make no mistake that's what this is.

That 5/9, 55% number is important. ND is now a partial football member. And they play every team in the league every 3 years. For comparison, how often will we play teams in the other division, like VTech? Can't be much more often than that.

This is huge, amazing, incredible news and is VERY different from the arrangement the Big East had with ND.

 

[Townie72]

Townie - are Billy O and I going to see you at SU Sportsnight this evening in downtown DC?

Not in town, Bayside.

 

[PhatOrange]

Some of the hand wringing in this thread is laughable.

What great news this is. The only thing we should care about is Syracuse making more money and this is exactly what this does.

More money for TV. More money with ND having to play 5 ACC football games every year.

So much more money for Syracuse it's a home run.

$50 mil exit fee nobody is going anywhere – ever. Big 12 will never be able to poach an ACC team which was a big joke to begin with but now not even the SEC will not be able to poach an ACC team either, it just to much money. 50 mill doesn’t grow on trees.

The ACC has no reason to expand now. No uconn no buttgers. The ACC has a neatly packaged 14 team football league plus ND. Nobody cares if hoops is unbalanced but they won’t by bringing in another school which would unbalance football. No other team out there is going to increase the dollars to make expansion attractive. So it’s over.

 

[Jake]

There was simply no way that Notre dame was going to send its basketball team to Houston, memphis and SMU every other year.

 

[Scooch]

Looks to be. Reports today say the ACC has no interest in moving to 16 teams. Add in the 50 mill dollar exit fee, and today goes along way in assuring long term stability for our future conference. Perfect world, I don't love ND either but if it improves my schools standing in college athletics, I'm all for it.

And this is what people should really care about. This deal with ND means more money for SU. That's a great thing.

 

[orangefog]

Ok, so does this mean that we get ND in the dome once every 6 years?

 

[DPCuse]

You have to wonder with ND falling to the ACC if all the other conferences now move on to Plan B. The chaos may just be beginning around the country. And the beauty of it is, the ACC schools can sleep easy at night watching the drama. I love it. Great move Gross, Cantor and the rest of the Admins and Trustees getting us to the ACC.

 

[orange126]

It's funny that academics have anything to do with this. This is all about money. This is not directed at you.

If this was all about the money, wouldn't ND be somewhere else? This is about money and culture.

 

[midloviking]

playing ND once every three years > than playing any BE team every year

 

[SUinNYC]

Dan Wetzel has a really interesting look at this. He says what forced ND's hand was football scheduling. That's why ND agreed to partial football membership(5 games vs. 9)--they had to. If they didn't, they wouldn't be able to fill their schedule. Everybody's dance card was filling up and ND was having trouble getting to 12 games.

Notre Dame currently must schedule all of its 12 games per year. This drops to seven games with the ACC scheduling the other five. ACC teams will likely be featured during the more challenging dates later in the season. It's a far easier task.
"People don't realize how difficult it is," the source said. "The outlook was very challenging. If the Big Ten does move to a nine-game league schedule down the line, and it could be 10 years from now, can we still count on getting Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan all in a row? And late October and November kept growing tougher."

 

[billsin01]

If this was all about the money, wouldn't ND be somewhere else? This is about money and culture.

No, this is about money ... then culture. I mean, I get what you're saying but there are other conferences that probably want no part of this arrangement -- SEC and Big 10 come to mind. The Big 12 probably doesn't have the money. I really think people thinking this is not at least very much about the money are not understanding the arms race that is inherent in colleges and universities across the country.

 

[Shenexon]

Will ND get a full share of conference revenue even though football is technically not included? I read an interesting post on the Boneyard that theorized that ND asked for a full share from the BE, was rebuffed, and was able to get a full share from the ACC. The post was based on a conversation with someone that does business with Notre Dame and the BE. The post is long and I include a link below, but here's the part I thought interesting:

"He said that Notre Dame wanted a full football share of the upcoming Big East TV deal. They were told by the new commish that they will be treated just like the other non-football schools and would get the non-football share only. This is a significant shift in the tone and message from Big East leadership with the new commish from the relationship they used to have with the conference powers. Notre Dame insisted that they get the full football share, but he BE was not backing down.

Therefore, Notre Dame had discussion with the ACC and were given the money they were looking for from the BE by the ACC for their non-football membership. This move had to have been "assisted" by ESPN...as they are the ones who will have agreed to give the ACC the extra money to pay ND given the ACC contract. This is just another attempt to weaken the BE and eliminate quality content for competitors."

Link

 

[Whitey23]

@mcmurphyespn: ACC will not go to 16 teams in hoops, sources tell @espn. Notre Dame will be league's last addition

 

[xc84]

Assuming this is true.

Let's get technical about this. Notre Dame is NOT JOINING THE ACC.

Their football program (and hockey) will not be part of the ACC, so they are not a full member.

This full membership is what I said will not happen. And it hasn't.

The people that were wrong on this are those that said the ACC will never accept a partial member.

Ok...but someone on this board was VERY firm that if ND went to another conference, the ONLY conference that made sense is the B10. I think there's $50M out there now that says different. Even that guy would have to agree that if ND football joins a conference, it will be the ACC.