Interesting thread on Notre Dame and the ACC from David Hale of ESPN. It explains all the pros and cons of Notre Dame Independence It also shows why Jack Swarbrick is a top Athletic Director.
I was unsuccessful in linking the thread. Perhaps someone with more technical skills can do so. Here is the twitter address https://twitter.com/ADavidHaleJoint
Here are a few of the tweets in the very long thread:
First, let's clarify where things stand w/ND: When Notre Dame joined the ACC as a partial member (all sports but football + 5 guaranteed football games/year) it agreed to a.) the same grant of rights deal (through 2036) as everyone else (except for football) + a big promise (2/x)
ND's deal with the ACC says that IF the Irish join any conference, it MUST be the ACC. I've confirmed this agreement runs concurrent to the grant of rights, so in place through 2036. Of course, there's a way out of everything in college sports, but it would VERY expensive. (3/x)
Of course, the B1G and P12 would love to land ND, too, as a means of leveling the playing field with the new-look SEC but there is a massive financial hurdle. Could the B1G, with a massive new TV deal in the near future, overcome that? Maybe, but the ACC will not go gently. (4/x)
Bigger caveat in ND/ACC agreement is the word "if.” There's a hot take now that ND needs a conference more than ever. I'm not so sure, for a few reasons, but start with this: They had a great 2020 in the ACC & Swarbrick says they came away MORE committed to independence. (5/x)
There's another caveat here, too: Jack Swarbrick is VERY smart, and he's already thinking long term. Linear TV revenue drives everything now, but ND is making moves in the direct-to-consumer market that's driven, fittingly, by its independence, with Fighting Irish TV (18/x)
So imagine ND found FITV so successful that it felt it could easily get $100/year out of subscribers & with a massive national brand, it could sell that to, say, a quarter-million fans. That's an extra $25M/year in revenue and its content ND owns & controls. (21/x)
I was unsuccessful in linking the thread. Perhaps someone with more technical skills can do so. Here is the twitter address https://twitter.com/ADavidHaleJoint
Here are a few of the tweets in the very long thread:
First, let's clarify where things stand w/ND: When Notre Dame joined the ACC as a partial member (all sports but football + 5 guaranteed football games/year) it agreed to a.) the same grant of rights deal (through 2036) as everyone else (except for football) + a big promise (2/x)
ND's deal with the ACC says that IF the Irish join any conference, it MUST be the ACC. I've confirmed this agreement runs concurrent to the grant of rights, so in place through 2036. Of course, there's a way out of everything in college sports, but it would VERY expensive. (3/x)
Of course, the B1G and P12 would love to land ND, too, as a means of leveling the playing field with the new-look SEC but there is a massive financial hurdle. Could the B1G, with a massive new TV deal in the near future, overcome that? Maybe, but the ACC will not go gently. (4/x)
Bigger caveat in ND/ACC agreement is the word "if.” There's a hot take now that ND needs a conference more than ever. I'm not so sure, for a few reasons, but start with this: They had a great 2020 in the ACC & Swarbrick says they came away MORE committed to independence. (5/x)
There's another caveat here, too: Jack Swarbrick is VERY smart, and he's already thinking long term. Linear TV revenue drives everything now, but ND is making moves in the direct-to-consumer market that's driven, fittingly, by its independence, with Fighting Irish TV (18/x)
So imagine ND found FITV so successful that it felt it could easily get $100/year out of subscribers & with a massive national brand, it could sell that to, say, a quarter-million fans. That's an extra $25M/year in revenue and its content ND owns & controls. (21/x)
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