This is pretty strange, but I guess when confronted with all of the Florida State speculation, ESPN felt it necessary to release a statement on its new agreement with the ACC. As several of you mentioned in the last post on this subject, the escalators are not unique to the ACC. I still wonder how they compare to the other conferences, but I also acknowledge that I should back slowly away from the panic button.
First, a rights fee payment schedule that escalates in amount over the term is a commonplace provision in major college conference deals. This arrangement is not unique to the ACC. The pre-existing agreement between ESPN and the ACC (that carried through 2023) had an escalating rights fee schedule and the deal we announced last week contains a similar schedule. There is nothing unusual about how ESPN is paying the ACC over the life of this deal. It’s the industry standard.
I'll leave the guesses as to ESPN's true motives here to the rest of the tubes. This is pretty unusual though, there's no denying that.