2019-Whenever Misc. Grab Bag Thread
- Thread starter jeffbear
- Start date
It’s the A&PCC now.
Someone reported that, in an effort to reduce travel for the “Olympic sports” they’d gather teams in Dallas as a way of minimizing travel. That’s a brilliant idea, make both teams travel and ensure that no family members can attend. SMU doesn’t have baseball, men’s track and field, softball, field hockey or lacrosse so those sports are out.
LJG
Well-known member
The Great A&P CC to you!
Found it. It came from Pete Thamel but is a quote from the Cal Chancellor.
CanadaCanes
Well-known member
So how long before FSU, Clemson and others bolt from the ACC for greener $$$ pastures?
Well, that depends ... because it's about legal agreements and not bluster on sports talk shows. FSU's people have been particularly full of themselves lately on that front, making a lot of statements they know full well are nonsense after meetings this July aimed at breaking the agreement ended in frustration. The grant of rights contract that binds the ACC schools to the conference and the current TV and other collective rights deals runs until 2036, and it has proven thus far to be legally bullet proof.
Caveat ... there comes a point when breaking the grant of rights agreement becomes a manageable write-down and not the onerous penalty it is in 2023. By taking these three programs into their existing media contract structure, the ACC wins small on the revenue front for 2-3 years while basically ensuring they'll lose big in the long run. In other words, this expansion probably guarantees that the ACC will dissolve or restructure when the current grant of rights deal runs out. From my understanding from talking to some State people, it's a two-stage bet.
Stage 1 ... that the collapse of the TV rights market means that the current B1G and SEC contracts are unsustainable in the future (and maybe in the present). In other words, with patience, the financial scales will level out because the collapse of cable carriage rights fees means there's simply not enough money in the system anymore to sustain the present, much less grow the future. There's good bloody reason that Disney is playing hardball with Spectrum on their carriage fees and it has nothing to do with corporate greed. It has to do with the current numbers basically guaranteeing the ESPN loses money and Disney being no longer willing to subsidize the sports right fees out of their own pockets. ESPN has been bleeding cash for several years and sooner or later somebody was always going to apply the brakes. That time looks increasingly like now.
Stage 2 ... that the CFA, which really runs college football, will break away from the NCAA and make its own way before 2037 (or whenever the ACC grant of rights collapses as a disincentive). Honestly, this may be even more inevitable than the first bet. And the first bet is close to a sure thing ... depending on the degree of revenue reduction. Everybody outside of college administration sees that none of this conference weirdness works for anybody other than the football programs. It's only a matter of time before the increased costs associated with these mega-conferences to the non-revenue sports start to actually impact the bottom line for the revenue sports. It's already happening to basketball, which has become a shadow of its former self in a VERY short period of time. When it starts to hit football, I don't think it'll take even 2 seasons for the CFA to say screw it and start to flex their position. You probably end up with a semi-pro layer that pays the athletes and plays big money championship level football administered directly by the CFA or some other agency cooked up for purpose, running parallel to a more traditional student athlete based model administered by the NCAA. Then the CFA would be free to reset common sense and carve their super-conference up into regional divisions like any pro sport.
So yeah, the ACC made a short term cash grab because they're betting that the short term is all that matters ... because everything is going to blow up one way or another before the downside kicks in. It's cynical and self-serving, but honestly ... they're probably right.
I think breaking the grant of rights becomes less onerous after 2030. But if the ACC thinks they’re going to come out of it in a better position relative to the Big 10 and SEC than they’re currently in, well, I’d like some of what they’re smoking. If what we've seen regarding UNC, Clemson and FSU are even remotely true, the league as a whole will be diminished to the point where they could fall behind the Big 12 or whatever they end up as.
Nice job by BC upholding the ACC today against MAC powerhouse Northern Illinois. At home. How’s that particular Big East raid working out?
Nice job by BC upholding the ACC today against MAC powerhouse Northern Illinois. At home. How’s that particular Big East raid working out?
If I let my imagination loose, I would bet that college football prices itself out of business in the next few years. As Jeffbear points out, the big money from TV is going to run out. Who would be surprised to see some of the cable dependent networks like ESPN declare bankruptcy and bail from their contracts? Then the schools will have hugely expensive football operations with multi-million dollar coaching staffs, a need to pay players (it's coming - look at graduate student unions), no revenue beyond ticket sales and donations (which won't be tax deductible), and they'll need to decide "football or academics?" I suspect we'll see a lot more Ivy League sized operations and D1 will become a minor league feeder to the NFL, with academic institutions continuing to be sponsors (those stadiums have to be used). Most speculative: the players won't need to be students, but they'll have time limited contracts.
Pucking Lamplighter
Well-known member
I think gambling powers much of football's popularity, so unless you get a drop in wagering participants (yeah, right) they will help drive the industry. College football is definitely a farm system for the NFL and as hot as NFL is these days, it will be a while before things cools off. Until you start pricing fans out and making TV packages unaffordable for the average fan (they seem to be trying hard to do it), there's going to be plenty of interest where advertizers, sponsors, and networks still make a decent stack of cash off football. RossMck is right that greed will kill the golden goose before anything else will.
Jim
Jim
Again, I don't think that's what they're thinking AT ALL. They're maxing out their short term payouts and betting that the whole system eats itself before any member schools either figure out how to break the grant of rights (unlikely from what I've been told by lawyer types) or we get to the risk/reward point in 2030 or so ... when a school could do what Maryland did and just amortize the loss and take a 5-6 year hit in order to guarantee more revenue in the long run.
And this should be repeated ... UNC, Clemson, FSU and anybody else who's ticked off can say whatever they want. They already spent 6 months trying to figure out a way out of the grant of rights contract and failed. They can say what they want and want what they want, but unless ALL of the league schools vote to dissolve that thing, they're going nowhere.
Frankly, I don't see ANY way the current system keeps chugging along the way it is too much longer anyway. The cable carriage fee money becoming unreliable and the RSNs biting the dust are huge cracks in the dam. That's gonna get worse, not better. And they've already proven they can't get the money they need on a PPV model. By the way, did anybody save any of that wildly inflated TV revenue they've been getting over the past decade? No? They spent it on palatial training facilities and expensive coaches? Seems like the kind of thing grownups wouldn't do, honestly.
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The Eastern Band of Cherokee voted more than 2 to 1 to legalize recreational marijuana. The expect to open a dispensary in the fall. They approved medical marijuana in 2021.
Eastern Band of Cherokee voters pave way for Qualla Boundary to be first place in North Carolina for legal recreational marijuana purchase
Cannabis referendum passage positions Eastern Band of Cherokee to generate millions in revenue.
www.bpr.org
Keep in mind ... the Cherokee are set to market their own marijuana in their own nation, where they have long ago relaxed enforcement of any possession laws. The possession laws in surrounding areas still are in force, so I could see some potential friction with the NC counties that border QB. I mean, there aren't many and it's one of the lower population regions of NC so stakes are relatively low ... still, you just know you're gonna get some interesting politicking in sheriff races in the region.
TheBigKahuna
Well-known member
You can't walk outside anywhere around the Carolinas without being soaked in the stinch of marijuana. Keeping it "illegal" is laughable.
Went to see Pavement on City Plaza at Hopscotch last night ... can confirm. Twas skunky
LJG
Well-known member
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Seems like a lot of the same people that bitched and moaned about having to deal with other people’s cigarette smoke are all for legalization of weed.
LJG
Well-known member
True, but it's a great ritual sort of thing.
