What’s New
Clemson University sued the Atlantic Coast Conference on Tuesday, following a similar lawsuit Florida State University filed against the same conference late last year. The two colleges, which sport two of the most competitive football programs in the ACC, are seeking to be released from the conference’s media-rights agreement, freeing them to leave the group altogether. (The ACC has also sued Florida State.)
The Details
In its lawsuit, filed in a South Carolina court, Clemson challenges the ACC’s claim that it owns the media rights even of colleges that leave the conference before 2036, when its TV deal with ESPN expires. It also challenges the $140-million penalty the conference says it will levy against departing members.
“The prospect that a public institution of higher education in South Carolina might possibly be required to pay an unconscionably high withdrawal penalty — one that has ballooned in size since it was first adopted — chills Clemson’s ability to explore options that are in its best interests,” Clemson wrote in its lawsuit.
In a statement, the ACC’s board chair and commissioner said their conference “remains confident that its agreements with all its members will be affirmed by the courts.” They said Clemson signed the media-rights agreement in 2013 and re-signed three years later, agreeing to the process for withdrawal. The conference will “vigorously enforce” the agreement, the statement said.
The Stakes
Clemson’s lawsuit is part of a national reorganization of athletic conferences. While there used to be five conferences with big, lucrative football programs, increasingly two have emerged as the most powerful and competitive: the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference. Each presides over TV deals valued in the billions.
The revenue imbalance between those two conferences and the rest of Division I, the NCAA’s top competitive tier, has prompted defections. In the last two years, several high-profile members of the Pac-12, one of the former “Power Five” conferences, jumped ship for the Big Ten, which in turn caused other members to leave for the ACC and Big 12 Conference, leaving the West Coast conference decimated.
Now, Clemson and Florida State may be positioning themselves for a departure from the ACC to greener pastures.
“I would describe it as every school for itself,” said Michael H. LeRoy, a labor and employment professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world.”
I would describe it as every school for itself. It's a dog-eat-dog world.
The moves by Clemson and Florida State are widely viewed as aiming to maximize their slice of television revenue by moving to a conference with a more lucrative deal. To them, LeRoy said, staying in the ACC means accepting a permanent disadvantage when recruiting coaches and building high-end facilities.
If the hundreds of millions of dollars that flow into college sports every year continue to consolidate among the colleges in the top competitive conferences, that could have meaningful consequences for many other institutions. If athletic departments left out of the remaining power conferences lose TV revenue, that may affect their ability to pay for other sports, benefits for their athletes, and high-priced facilities.
What to Watch For
The NCAA and its member colleges are in the midst of a yearslong effort to convince the courts, the National Labor Relations Board, and the public that their athletes are amateurs, not employees who should be paid. Proponents of the claim that college athletes are actually professionals have seized on conference realignment to demonstrate just how commercial the enterprise has become. For example, the SEC’s deal with Disney, owner of ESPN, goes into effect this year. Under the terms of the deal, ESPN will reportedly pay the SEC $300 million a year.
Clemson’s and Florida State’s willingness to sue their conference for a chance at a bigger piece of the revenue pie may undermine the broader argument that colleges’ big-time athletic programs are just amateur leagues. Athletes may be able to point to such lawsuits when making their case that they should share in revenue through direct pay, as opposed to the roundabout system of name, image, and likeness compensation that now predominates.
“It really looks like a professional league,” LeRoy said.
