Notre Dame to ACC

[Ragingcroc]

I hope there's some provision in there that keeps us from playing them in the orange bowl if we already played them during the regular season.

No one will ever put two teams that played in the regular season into the same bowl game.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

...unless they are both in the $EC #GodsConference #YOLO

 

[robV703]

...unless they are both in the $EC #GodsConference #YOLO

Well they didn't fool me. Still haven't seen that game and I don't plan to.

 

[Rocco]

No one will ever put two teams that played in the regular season into the same bowl game.

In addition to the title game last year, 2 years ago the Holiday Bowl was a rematch between Nebraska and Washington. Nebraska killed Washington the first time, and Washington won the rematch.

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

Florida State and Miami also played in the 2004 Orange Bowl, as a rematch. Now this was a year before ACC expansion, but they did play every year at that point. Chris Rix lost to Miami 5 times.

 

[Rocco]

Florida State and Miami also played in the 2004 Orange Bowl, as a rematch. Now this was a year before ACC expansion, but they did play every year at that point. Chris Rix lost to Miami 5 times.

I knew I was forgetting one, and now that you reminded me I remember why I forgot that game. It was God-awful.

 

[Sleepy T]

I think this is a good enough deal for both schools and it paves the way for a full ND ACC membership if (or when) the super-conference thing comes into fruition. ND needed this with the Big East falling apart and the ACC did as well as some additional reasons for schools to not bolt (in addition to the 50 mill exit fee...sheesh). It boosts the SOS, gives all ACC teams additional exposure (NBC), and strengthens the BBall in the ACC even more (will be the best in the land top to bottom, which I ma not sure is a good thing for VT??). A win win IMO.

 

[Ballboy534]

I'm curious to see when they will change the 9 game conference schedule; every third year, Clemson/FSU/GT will have a whopping one open schedule slot.

 

[Lumbee09]

We've all been talking about ND joining, but what may be more significant in the near future is the raising of the exit fee. The exit fee is now 3x the operating budget, meaning... ACC now has a fee that will grow over time. They probably won't have to adjust it again. Using last year's budget the fee would be $50 million. That's huge. WVU paid $20 mil (and i think that was high because they left early).

At this point, I find it hard to believe that FSU will be headed to the big 12 with that new fee (even though they voted against it). On that note, I find it hard to believe we're going anywhere. Especially since that fee will only be going up. All it takes is for Swofford to decide to spend a few extra million in one season in order to raise the exit fee. I'm expecting the ACC to stay as it is for the long haul. In the future, we will probably see the ACC go to 16 teams with ND joining for football, but the ACC won't be the conference getting poached.

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

So I was thinking about what the future holds for the ACC and ND in football. We all know ND values it's independence. I'm not saying this is or isn't a step to full membership. My question is, could the ACC every make financial sense to eventually lure ND to full membership if all the other things fell in place? This is in response to the general "they'll never give up their NBC money" reasoning.

ACC per team share is estimated 17 million per year after Syracuse and Pitt were added.

Notre Dame gets 15 million per year from NBC contract.
Notre Dame gets their share of ACC non-football media rights which is 20% of the ACC's contract with ESPN (per Swoff).

Notre Dame's ACC revenue share = 17*0.2 = 3.4 million

VT = 17 million
ND = 18.4 million

So based on TV contracts Tech is 1.4 million behind ND if ESPN does nothing to increase per team revenue with the adjustments to the contract. It's not inconceivable that per team revenue would increase. I think it's definitely plausible that the ACC could negotiate in the future a financial package that would match or even beat ND's independence.

There are tons of hurdles to ND considering full membership, but the financial numbers aren't as difficult as one may think. Just a thought.

 

[NickVT10]

I believe they have said that ESPN and the ACC are already renegotiating since we added ND and could bump each school up to 18-19m a year. If ND became a full member, they could probably get more money from ESPN since they would be showing more ND games which would draw a bigger audience for the season...

 

[sparko]

Yep .. I read that too .. that the existing members could end up at 18-19 mil per as is right now. I think that it depends a lot on what NBC brings in 2015 and whether ESPN wants ND to be affiliated with a conference. My guess is that ESPN will be able to up the ante to get Notre Dame on its network. But Notre Dame isn't stupid. They'll be working both ends of that in a few years and go with the better deal. If it's a "push" or close, they'll forego the pennies to stay independent ... or I guess the option is whether ESPN will make a push to get an indy contract with ND. Like I said, depends a whole lot on what everyone's intentions are.

 

[HoHumHokie]

I heard some interesting facts that may make it more likely that ND ends up as a full member sooner than you think.

1) Most notably was that when ND and NBC signed their last deal, it was Dick Ebersol leading the charge for NBC Sports. Erbersol didn't attend ND, but was a big ND fan and had 1 or 2 children attend ND. Well, Erbersol resigned from NBC Sports a year ago. So someone pro-Notre Dame is no longer in charge.
2) Also last year, the Comcast-NBC merger was completed, but it is basically Comcast calling the shots now within the organization. Comcast is looking for ways to expand NBC Sports as the Olympics, PGA Golf, NFL (1 game a week), the French Open and ND football are its only selling points. If Comcast-NBC goes the route of adding more college football, then you can bet they won't be striking the same deal with ND. The ND contract expires in 2015.
3) ND football obviously isn't what it used to be and the TV ratings have suffered in recent years. But the main reason is because college football is every where now. You can almost always watch your favorite team on some network or online. Whose going to be tuning in for ND-Purdue or ND-Navy on NBC? ND can no longer use as a strong selling point the fact that it's games can always be seen. So can every other school from a power conference.
4) The evolving playoff system may force ND to join a conference.

 

[hunzworth]

3) ND football obviously isn't what it used to be and the TV ratings have suffered in recent years. But the main reason is because college football is every where now. You can almost always watch your favorite team on some network or online. Whose going to be tuning in for ND-Purdue or ND-Navy on NBC? ND can no longer use as a strong selling point the fact that it's games can always be seen. So can every other school from a power conference.

Im with you on this. ND built its (non catholic) fanbase in a time when you either watched ND v/s opponent on saturday or the SEC game of the week, because those were the only games on. Now you can be a fan of SDSU, live in Maine, and still catch the majority of there games. My point being that ND isnt as easy of a "sell" to non alums as it has been for the last 60 years.

 

[Ragingcroc]

...unless they are both in the $EC #GodsConference #YOLO

Guess I should have put sarcasm tags on my post

 

[hokiegrad]

The ACC just announced that, due to the Notre Dame agreement, we will go back to an 8 game conference schedule for football. Clemson, FSU, and GT fans are rejoicing. And our chances of keeping the Wisky series, etc. just went back up.

 

[Ballboy534]

The ACC just announced that, due to the Notre Dame agreement, we will go back to an 8 game conference schedule for football. Clemson, FSU, and GT fans are rejoicing. And our chances of keeping the Wisky series, etc. just went back up.

http://www.sportshoopla.com/forums/clemson-tigers/81224-acc-decides-scrap-9-game-schedule.html

 

[NickVT10]

We had planned on playing 1 FCS, 1 MAC Caliber, 1 top tier opponent with the 9 game conf schedule. I wonder what we will do with that 4th OOC game now.

 

[HoHumHokie]

We had planned on playing 1 FCS, 1 MAC Caliber, 1 top tier opponent with the 9 game conf schedule. I wonder what we will do with that 4th OOC game now.

Weaver will probably try to schedule a 10 year (ECU like) series with ODU or some other FCS team from VA.

 

[757Hokie83]

Weaver will probably try to schedule a 10 year (ECU like) series with ODU or some other FCS team from VA.

ODU is about to be conference USA