The ACC and Orange Bowl on Thursday formally announced long-anticipated partnerships that dramatically upgrade the conference’s postseason opponent pool.
During the 12-year arrangement from the 2014-25 seasons, which coincides with college football's new playoff, an ACC team will face an opponent from among the SEC, Big Ten and Notre Dame. ESPN will televise the game, set for either prime time Dec. 31 or during the afternoon Jan. 1.
The contract continues the ACC's recent affiliation with the Orange Bowl — the conference's champion has played there in the last seven seasons — but radically alters the opponent pool.
Only twice in the last seven years has the ACC champ played a team from the new grouping. Florida State faced the Big Ten's Penn State in the 2005 season, and Georgia Tech met the Big Ten's Iowa four years later.
The SEC and Big Ten are each guaranteed three Orange Bowls during the contract, Notre Dame no more than two. Four times during the 12 years, the Orange Bowl will serve as a national playoff semifinal. In those seasons, if the ACC champ does not qualify for the playoff, it will be assigned to one of three so-called access bowls, expected to be the Fiesta, Cotton and Chick-fil-A.
Neither the ACC nor ESPN announced rights fees, but ESPN.com’s Brett McMurphy, quoting anonymous sources, said the deal averages $55 million annually, half to the ACC, half to the opposing team’s conference. If the opponent is Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish receive considerably less than half, McMurphy reported.
Given McMurphy’s affiliation, bank on his numbers being spot-on.
The $55 million is significantly less than the reported $80 million ESPN will pay for the Rose Bowl (Big Ten vs. Pacific 12) and Sugar Bowl (SEC vs. Big 12). But the per-school disparity isn’t as jarring.
For example, $27.5 million divided among the ACC’s 14 members figures to $1.96 million each. The SEC’s $40 million Sugar Bowl windfall shared among 14 schools is $2.86 million apiece.
In an era when major college athletic department budgets routinely exceed $75 million, a $900,000 gap isn’t alarming.
Given the ACC’s recent football struggles – Florida State in 2000 was the league’s most-recent top-five team – the Orange Bowl deal is a plus. Moreover, the Big Ten, SEC and Notre Dame virtually guarantee a marquee opponent.
“We are pleased to have finalized our long-term partnership which brings tremendous exposure and value to the ACC and our member institutions,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. “The Discover Orange Bowl has a rich history of prestige and featuring our teams against opponents from the Big Ten, SEC and potentially Notre Dame provides attractive matchups year in and year out. The opportunity to partner with ESPN to showcase the game on either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day provides us with a terrific way for fans to ring in the New Year in South Florida.”
So here’s how the new postseason will work:
The 24 playoff semifinals during the 12 years will be split among the Orange, Rose, Sugar and three access bowls. Four each.
The national championship game will be bid out and awarded separately, like the Final Four and Super Bowl.
If the ACC champion qualifies for the playoffs in a year when the Orange is not a semifinal host, the next-highest ranked ACC team will play in the Orange. If the ACC champ makes an Orange Bowl semifinal, then the league’s No. 2 team heads to an access bowl.
Were the system in place this season, the bowls might look as follows:
Oregon, Kansas State, Notre Dame and the SEC champ to the national semifinals. With Notre Dame unavailable and only one Big Ten team (Nebraska) among the top 20, the ACC’s Orange Bowl opponent would come from the SEC.
Projecting Alabama to the playoffs and LSU to the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl would then have paired presumed ACC champ Florida State with Georgia, Texas A&M or South Carolina. The Aggies’ Johnny Football against the Seminoles’ defense would have been worth the price of admission.
Speaking of money, conference commissioners met in Denver this week to discuss distribution of playoff revenue. Here’s McMurphy’s account.
Also, here is the ACC press release from this morning.
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