The Atlantic Coast Conference has spent a lot of time trying to find extra money to close the gap with the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences.
The conference hopes that a new way of splitting payments among its schools will help and provide some certainty for its future.
This sports season is the first under a new system where ACC schools can keep more of the money they make from their own postseason success. This is different from the old system where all the money was shared equally among all the full members.
This “success initiative” might bring an extra $20 million to $25 million for a school during a strong year, mostly based on football, as is common in college sports.
This change might encourage more spending on revenue-generating programs, with the goal of boosting their own income while also winning championships.
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham mentioned in an interview with The Associated Press, “We’re seeing more and more of a movement toward if you generate it, you get it.”
He added, “You’re seeing that within leagues, by the conference affiliations and those changes. 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 at a time of change and tension for the ACC. The league has expanded westward by adding California and Stanford from the Pac-12, along with SMU from the American Athletic Conference.
The ACC is currently involved in legal disputes with major football schools like Florida State and Clemson. These disputes concern the ACC’s ability to charge hundreds of millions of dollars — through exit fees and by holding back media-rights payments — for any school that decides to leave the conference.
The new success-driven incentives mark a shift from the old system of equal distribution; the three new schools this year will receive reduced or no media-rights payouts for the next decade.
Despite concerns about Big Ten and SEC teams having more money to spend on staff, facilities, amenities, and even recruiting players, coaches support the new approach.
Coach Dave Doeren of 24th-ranked N.C. State commented, “It’s a great opportunity for the teams that succeed and put the product on the field. 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.”
