Predictable people can be so boring but for some reason I just can't get enough of the ACC league officials who seem to have their own Vanilla Sky phony reality thing going on in regards to their TV contracts. According to the quotes in the ACC Sports Journal the league expects to get as much or more than the SEC's $3 billion, yes B as in billion, 15 year television deals. In the midst of the deepest recession since the depression of the 1930's, with falling revenue in nearly every athletic department and schools trying to cut costs by ditching air travel the ACC "leadership" sincerely believes that they will even get a fraction of what the SEC received? I guess pretending you have not been left in the dust as a athletic conference is better than admitting your athletic departments have little hope of competing economically with the likes of the schools in SEC in the foreseeable future.
As the article points out the last contract in 2004 the league signed was for $260 million for seven years and they probably only got that money because TBS was sniffing around to outbid ESPN. Two years later the Big East, who was left for dead after the ACC raided it of some mediocre football programs, signed a 6 year contract with ESPN for over $250 million. No one can turn an opportunity into a disaster like John Swofford and his cronies in the ACC's athletic departments. It is well known that ESPN overpays for every sporting event it broadcasts but I would find it hard to imagine the folks in Bristol are prepared to offer over $100 million per year for ACC football. The Big Ten has a $1 billion 10 year agreement with ESPN and I doubt that the ACC will get more than that. I'm sure that won't stop the ACC from putting out pathetic press releases arguing that this awful foster family conference is as healthy as any in the country.
