What IF… Breakaway? a new BIG EAST!?!

by TexCane

For years, there have been questions and rumors about the future viability of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The ACC has been battling both a financial revenue gap and internal conflicts for years.

Our GOAL:

What are the options for the conference and/or schools? Our exercise involved dissolving the ACC, forming a new 12-school conference, resulting in a very powerful conference in both football and basketball that brings competitive success, financial stability to member schools and brings the game back to our fans. We believe we have accomplish many of these goals. However, we still need to finish with the strategic details.

Our METHODOLOGY:

Along with a friend (aka AZ Nole), we conducted a fantasy selection process for a new conference. Twelve schools have been offered membership. We went back to the future, selecting schools located in eastern United States, brining the game we love back to our fans.

The RESULTS:

Conference Membership: (completed)

1. Florida State Seminoles

2. Miami Hurricanes

3. Clemson Tigers

4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

5. North Carolina Tar Heels

6. Duke Blue Devils

7. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

8. Virginia Tech Hokies

9. West Virginia Mountaineers

10. Pittsburgh Panthers

11. Louisville Cardinals

12. UConn Huskies

Our new conference will be very competitive in both football and basketball. Our new conference will be located in the eastern half of our nation.

Now that we have completed our school selections, it’s time to address the strategic details, including a final market assessment, revenue distribution, a conference name, a possible strategic alliance/merger, and a potential media rights partner.

NEW DEVELOPMENT: “Save College Sports”

Over the past week, a new wrinkle has emerged around a provision in the “Save College Sports” act now being considered by the U.S. Congress. This proven calls for a ban on any college conference expansion. If passed, it could hasten the next, and last, realignment of college athletics. More on that coming.

The NAME: Big East

You cannot talk about the conference’s name without first talking about a potential unique strategic alliance or merger.

What if our new conference goes outside the box with a unique strategic alliance or merger with the Big East Conference. The Big East has a history in college football and a currently national basketball brand. The Big East Conference currently has eleven member schools. It’s primarily the premiere basketball conference in the northeast. The conference includes St.Johns, UConn, Villanova , Seton Hall, Creighton, DePaul, Marquette, Providence, Xavier, Georgetown and Butler

This would be a strategic scheduling alliance or a merger, between our conference’s 12 schools and the Big East’s 11 schools. Of course, that drops to 10 schools after UConn joins our new conference. This strategic scheduling agreement would include a full cross-conference schedule (10 games for each of our 12 schools).

In turn, the Big East licenses their name to our new conference. This alliance may be necessary if the “Save College Sports” bill is passed with a ban on conference expansion. If it doesn’t pass, then we are looking at a merger, with the 10 Big East schools as basketball-only schools. These current Big East schools would receive an annual sum for the naming rights.

If we can pull off this strategic alliance/merger, our conferences will have its name, the new Big East Conference.

The Market Assessment:

Our new BIG EAST has major U.S. markets including Chicago, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Hartford, Pittsburgh, Miami, Research Triangle, Louisville, Charlotte, and Greenville-Spartanburg. These markets represent 40 million TV households, very attractive to potential media partners.

The Media Rights Partnership:

Media Rights is no small part of this new Big East Conference. For years, ESPN relegated the ACC “to red-headed step brother” status. Privately, most ACC schools would prefer getting away from this smothering media conglomerate.

So, we decided to again go outside the box. Our new conference will negotiate a media rights agreement with one national media partner. With only twelve schools, it automatically lessens the revenue gap with the Super Two. Twelve revenue shares instead of seventeen revenue shares. We project each Big East football-playing school will earn at least $65M each year. That’s what you call closing the gap. The ACC currently paid out approximately $45M per school last year. And remember, that number could grow to as much as $80M per year after a performance bonus.

For talking purposes, let’s say NBC Sports, currently the media rights owner of Notre Dame athletics, becomes the NEW Big East media partner. NBC has distribution channels in broadcast television (NBC Network) and digital streaming (Peacock). The rights agreement could give NBC up to six football games each week of the season. That might also serve as an incentive for Notre Dame's membership in our new “Big East.?”

Bowl Season:

The NEW Big East could negotiate participation in the traditional college bowls. Schools that are selected would keep all revenue from these bowls.

Revenue Distribution: the money trail

The NEW BIG EAST will have a series of revenue streams for member schools (football). First, each football-playing school will get an equal base share each academic year. As we stated earlier that could be as much as $65M+.

The second revenue stream is a performance bonus. Based on conference record, the top six schools would receive an additional amount base on their final regular season finish. We estimate between $1M - $6M per season. For the conference champion, that means approximately $71M total.

But wait! There’s more!

Schools that make the College Football Playoff (CFP) or a Bowl Game get to keep all revenue received from those appearances. That could generate an additional $5-10M in revenue. That’s a performance bonus!. That would give the top schools a total annual revenue of approximately $80M+.

The Revenue Gap is CLOSED!

BOTTOM LINE:

We have dissolved the ACC, formed a new 12-school conference,

We have brought back regionalization!

We have formed a powerful strategic eastern alliance/merger.

We are called the BIG EAST CONFERENCE.

We have CLOSED the revenue gap.

Our new conference will bring competitive success, financial stability to member schools and bring the game back to our fans.

We believe we have accomplished our goals.

We hope you have enjoyed our fantasy..

But what IF?

GO BIG EAST!