ESPN staff report:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...rida-state

I’d like to see California and Stanford in the XII but only after publicly apologizing to any school they voted against adding to the PAC.

The ESPN article definitely emphasizes the Grant of Rights.

"Until proven otherwise, the ACC schools like North Carolina, Virginia, Florida State and Clemson are tangled in a legal web that includes a hefty exit fee and grant of rights that extends through 2036."

"Florida State has been exploring all its options for over a year, but there are key questions. If the Big Ten is interested: 1) How does Florida State figure out paying a $120 million exit fee and 2) come up with a strategy to get out of the grant of rights, which is meant to tie all ACC schools together until the end of their television contract with ESPN in 2036?"

"Florida State has had both an in-house legal team and an outside legal team study the specific contract language over the course of the last year. This is a document that has never been challenged in court, but one that in all likelihood will be at some point in time. Why? Because the grant of rights not only gives the ACC control over every school's media rights money, it gives the conference control over its actual media rights -- meaning the right to broadcast all home games in all sports.

Florida State may be willing to take the league to court to challenge the grant of rights, but legal battles take time and money -- and this is one the ACC will fight, since it wants to keep FSU and believes in the strength of the GOR document. And how attractive will FSU be to other conferences with those legal questions hovering over them?"

If anyone believes ESPN is willing to kill off the ACC and just take the best teams and move them over to the SEC, this contradicts that theory. Now ESPN can't flat out say that and tick off one of the conferences they have a partnership with or they could be on the hook for a crapload of money. They tried to kill off the Big 12 to save money by taking Texas and Oklahoma but the Big 12 instead killed off the Pac 12, in the end ESPN likely saved money. There isn't much saving for ESPN to kill off the ACC, at least now, when they still have Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, and others at the $35 million/yr rate. Having to pay half of them at $70 million/yr and not having to pay the others would net them nothing and that's assuming the Big 12 doesn't add any of them and they would lose money then.

(08-04-2023 06:52 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  I’d like to see California and Stanford in the XII but only after publicly apologizing to any school they voted against adding to the PAC.

Except Texas, no one apologize to Texas lol