Florida State athletic director Michael Alford told his board of trustees on Friday that «something has to change» when it comes to closing the growing revenue gap with other conferences — a sign that one of the biggest brands in the league is unhappy with the current structure.
In a phone interview with ESPN later Friday, Alford said he decided to make his comments after recent ACC winter meetings in which athletic directors and presidents discussed an uneven revenue sharing model at length without any consensus moving forward about what to do.
At issue: The ACC will fall behind both the SEC and Big Ten in revenue by about $30 million per year when their respective new television contracts kick in (Big Ten in 2023, SEC in 2024). «Something has to change because we cannot compete nationally being $30 million behind every year,» Alford said. «It's not one year.
We're talking about $30 million compounded year after year.» The ACC is locked into its television deal with ESPN through 2036.