Conference Realignment: What Oregon and Washington's jump means for Clemson
Early today, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Oregon and Washington are finalizing a move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten, continuing another summer of realignment inside of college football. Arizona is also reportedly making a jump to the Big 12.
On the East Coast, the ACC finds itself in a precarious situation. We all know the story by now: The ACC is locked into a deal through 2036 that will almost undoubtedly put the member schools at a 50% revenue stream compared to their chief competitors in the SEC and Big Ten. Some schools, namely Florida State, Clemson, and Miami aren't too thrilled about this development and are letting their discontent be known, some more loudly than others.
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So how does yet another slew of moves impact Clemson? The simple answer is: it doesn't. Sure, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona all making a jump is yet another example for the university to look at, but those schools have a distinct advantage over all of the schools in the ACC: they don't have an existing television deal. They get to just wash their hands of their old conference and hop into the new one. ACC schools would have to pay over $100 million to leave the conference and would still face a legal battle to get out of the grant of rights deal to their broadcasts.
With that said, the consolidation of wealth by the Big Ten may spur some conferences into a quicker acquisition of new schools. After Oregon and Washington join, the Big Ten will now sit at 18 schools. The SEC has said they're comfortable at 16 - once Texas and Oklahoma join in 2024 - and Commissioner Greg Sankey has stated he doesn't believe adding any more schools would financially benefit the conference, but what if those schools were Clemson, Florida State, and/or Miami?
His equation is simple: The SEC paid out $721.8 million to it's member schools in 2021-22. That's $49.9 million per school. Starting in 2024, ESPN will reportedly pay the SEC $300 million dollars annually for television rights through 2034, up from the $55 million CBS has been paying. Each of the 14 schools in the SEC are already counting that money. Would they jump at the opportunity to split it with two more schools? Not unless those schools bring in additional revenue that would make up for their share.
Now, that's not out of the question. Both Clemson and Florida State are above-average basketball schools and their football teams would undoubtedly be competing for College Football Playoff berths in the extended 12-team format. All of that brings in additional revenue for the conference. So while there are a number of obstacles if a jump to another conference is beneficial not just to Clemson, but to the new conference as well, it's certainly not out of the question.
More Clemson Football News:
- Dabo Swinney comments on Clemson's freshman class prior to fall camp
- Conference Realignment: What Oregon and Washington's jump means for Clemson
- Garrett Riley named one of the "most interesting new coordinators" by ESPN
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