The Atlantic Coast Conference has spent years working to find more money to reduce the gaps with the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences.
The league is hoping a new wrinkle to how it divvies up payments to its member schools can help and provide some stability about its long-term future.
This is the first sports season under a new model allowing ACC schools to keep more of the money generated by their own postseason success, a departure from decades of equal distributions among full league members. That “success initiative” could mean $20 million to $25 million more for a school in a big year, based primarily on football like everything else in college athletics.
It also could incentivize more investments in those revenue-driving programs, with the aim of generating their own bump to the bottom line alongside winning championships.
“We’re seeing more and more of a movement toward if you generate it, you get it,” North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“You’re seeing that within leagues, by the conference affiliations and those changes," he added. "You’re seeing it more within sports programs, that ‘If I generate it, I should get it.’ So all of this is following that natural pattern. And we’re trying to deal with that while trying to keep a league together and make the league competitive from top to bottom.”
The plan, approved in May 2023, comes amid change and tension for the ACC. The league expanded West to add California and Stanford from the Pac-12, along with SMU from the American Athletic Conference.
It is locked in legal battles with top football schools Florida State and Clemson tied to the ACC’s ability to charge hundreds of millions of dollars — through exit fees and by withholding media-rights payments — for any school that leaves the conference.
The arrival of success-driven incentives is another departure from the equal-distribution past; this year's three new schools are taking reduced or no media-rights payouts for the coming decade. But coaches worried about Big Ten and SEC teams having more money to spend on staff, facilities, amenities and even acquiring players are on board.
“It’s a great opportunity for the teams that succeed and put the product on the field,” said coach Dave Doeren of 24th-ranked N.C. State. “That’s what it’s about, earning who you are on the grass. ... And now you’re getting money for your program when you do that."
How it works
The ACC's model centers around the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. Teams could earn $4 million for an appearance, another $4 million for reaching the second round, $6 million for the semifinals and $6 million for the title game — a total of $20 million.
Teams also can earn success money by finishing in the top 25 of the CFP rankings and reaching a bowl game. And football money is positioned to climb.
“That grows as we go forward because those other numbers grow, and the CFP dollars grow,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said.
The plan also includes existing revenue distributions for success in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, with “units” earned for wins all the way to the Final Four. The NCAA is moving closer to implementing units for the women’s tournament, which would eventually be included in ACC’s success initiative.
Those are all in addition to league payouts tied to the league's TV deal with ESPN.
The money worries
According to tax documents, the ACC distributed an average of $44.8 million to its 14 football-playing members (Notre Dame receives a partial share as a football independent) and $706.6 million in total revenue for the 2022-23 season. That ranked third behind the Big Ten ($879.9 million revenue, $60.3 million average payout) and SEC ($852.6 million, $51.3 million) for the most recent year available, and ahead of the Big 12 ($510.7 million, $44.2 million).
Those numbers don’t factor in recent realignment that moved marquee programs like Texas, Oklahoma and USC to new homes, or the CFP model set to steer more future money to the Big Ten and SEC than the ACC and Big 12. But they offer a glimpse of how CFP wins or a men’s Final Four run can help an ACC team, such as Clemson reaching the CFP six straight times (2015-20) with two national titles under Dabo Swinney.
That’s why Tigers athletic director Graham Neff called it “an innovative, forward-moving approach” even as the school tries to sue its way out of the league. And Miami coach Mario Cristobal figures the timing is good for a league with five AP Top 25 teams, led by his 12th-ranked Hurricanes.
“Coaches have been in place for a couple of years now. ... They’ve assessed good players in the portal and have some impact players that have grown through the program,” Cristobal said. “I think all those things lead to better performances, and in turn give you the opportunity to financially put yourself in a better position.”
New model
Stanford coach Troy Taylor supports the plan, though with the perspective of having an up-close look at the Cardinal’s former league tearing itself apart amid concerns about revenues and TV deals.
“You can’t look at old models and think: ‘That’s the way to do things,’” Taylor said. “You’ve got to be open to changing, to look at things differently, just like a coach would. We’ve got to do that at the conference level as well.”
The success incentive is among several revenue streams the ACC has pursued, including corporate partnerships and sponsorships like naming rights at the high-profile men’s basketball tournament earlier this year.
As Cunningham noted: “There’s not a magic bullet here.”
Still, tying the financial carrot to goals teams are already relentlessly pursuing can’t hurt, either.
“I think anything the ACC can do as a conference to encourage investment in football, it would probably be a wise move for the league,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said. “Clearly, right now in the business of college athletics, football is the driver.”
