Today’s guest column is from Rick Burton of Syracuse University.
When I served as commissioner of Australia’s National Basketball League (between 2003-07), we added Singapore as an expansion team in 2006. Almost overnight, we became a multi-regional (or two-continent) competition.
Unfortunately, because the Slingers were based in Asia, their players were required to fly many multiples of air miles compared to every other NBL club. Granted, the Slingers were a start-up, but during the two years they existed in the league, they were never competitive.
Not surprisingly, Singapore withdrew from the NBL in 2008 for two primary reasons: the cost of travel and the hard reality NBL players didn’t want to sign with Singapore due to the wear and tear from so much air travel.
It is with that distinct knowledge I simultaneously applaud the ACC’s decision to add California, Stanford and SMU (because it ensures the ACC remains a power conference) but also come away concerned with the dilemma of addressing travel inequality.
Anyone with Google can deduce Cal and Stanford’s teams are just under 2,600 air miles from Miami and about 2,700 from Boston. The distance from Chapel Hill or Duke to BC and the U is between 600-700 miles. That’s just one example, but, over time, the three new long-haulers may not only miss out on some ACC media payments, but also on recruiting top athletes.
As I often note in my snarky Sportico columns, forget about missed class time for the student-athletes who will suddenly need to log thousands of domestic air miles to compete. The schools will hire more academic support specialists. Focus instead on the physical health of the competitors and the discomfort of frequent cross-country flights.
If you’re not in business class, it’s hard on the body.
Is it possible athletes from these three new teams are going to get beat up flying longer distances than athletes from UNC, Duke, Virginia or Pitt? Is it fair suggesting ACC athletic department travel budgets will rise such that including three new schools doesn’t benefit game attendance and instead generates higher expenses in travel and recruiting?
“This is an exciting day for the ACC, Syracuse University and our student-athletes, students, alumni and fans,” said Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack. “Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley and Southern Methodist University are top-tier institutions with tremendous academic profiles that align with the outstanding member universities that comprise the ACC.”
If anyone in the ACC can gauge the financial value of three new schools, it’s Wildhack. He engineered the current ESPN-ACC contract and saw to it the contract was lengthy, and was assured every ACC school signed an ironclad “grant of rights” agreement.
In Wildhack’s statement, he suggested the three new programs, with their historic heritage, are “highly competitive in all sports, with exceptional strength in the Olympic sports.” Additionally, they “will strengthen [the ACC] and enhance [the conference’s] position among the elite power conferences in the NCAA.”
I find it very hard criticizing the personable and caring ACC commissioner Jim Phillips. He is a friend and undoubtedly holds the well-being of the ACC’s athletes at the top of the many lists he must manage. To be fair, he really had no choice. The majority of ACC presidents mandated signing the Cardinal, Bears and Mustangs before the ACC became as obsolete as the Pac-12.
Here’s what comes next: By adding the Dallas and San Francisco markets on July 1, 2024, Phillips must direct the ACC’s renegotiation of its long-term media rights with ESPN. That’s because there’s a huge gap between the payouts the SEC and Big Ten generate for their member schools and what is delivered to the ACC and Big 12 schools.
So, let’s be honest. Adding three ACC schools is about an amended TV contract. For a national conference.
It’s also about keeping Florida State, Miami, Clemson and possibly UNC in the fold and ensuring ACC teams play in the 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP). For that to happen, good ACC teams need bad teams to beat. With all that travel, Cal, Stanford and SMU may conveniently fill that role.
In the end, after the singing and dancing is finished, this ACC announcement will be packaged as many things, but it’s a football play. Because gridiron teams only compete once a week and charter private jets, the member schools will suggest their football players, like the NFL pros they want to become, are OK with the added schools.
For the Olympic sport athletes, they’ll just need to adjust. That will ultimately warrant ongoing discussions on minimizing cross-country travel.
But how about this? Notre Dame is a member of the ACC except in football, where it’s independent, and in hockey, where it plays in the Big Ten. Should Cal, Stanford and SMU act as members of the ACC only in football and basketball?
The answer is “no” for now, but remember, commissioners exist, in part, to drive up revenues (or asset appreciation) and ensure parity. For my NBL owners nearly 20 years ago, adding Singapore wasn’t about keeping up with an SEC or Big Ten.
It was about having an easy team to beat.
One hopes Cal, Stanford and SMU didn’t just sign on as in-conference patsies but rather to stay in the Fantastic Four.
Rick Burton is the David B. Falk Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University and COO of Playbk Sports. His latest co-authored novel Invisible No More, about the life and death of Wilmeth Sidat-Singh, the greatest athlete no one has ever heard of, will be published by Subplot in late November.
