ACC revenue sharing plan is good, but there needs to be more

Neff says there will be a continued push for national relevance in all sports and that should be rewarded by the conference.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Fri May 26 07:00:24 GMT-04:00 2023

The ACC is taking steps to ensure that the programs that drive athletic success earn a bigger piece of the money pie, but Clemson Athletic Director Graham Neff thinks there needs to be more.

The ACC board of directors endorsed a new revenue distribution model Wednesday that will reward success based on postseason performance, the league announced in a statement. These "success incentives" are based on performance in revenue-generating postseason competition -- more specifically, the College Football Playoff and NCAA tournament. A larger share of that revenue will go to the teams participating rather than getting divided equally among all members.

All other revenues, including those from the league's current television contract, will continue to be shared equally. While the complete specifics have not yet been solidified, the success incentive initiative will begin in 2024-25, once the expanded College Football Playoff begins.

Neff said last week during an interview with Chris Spatola on Sirius/XM that he hopes the incentives will be beneficial to all schools.

“The notion is to encourage or incentivize investment that will hopefully create better performance. And obviously, football and men's basketball are the ones that have the most performance-based revenue associated with it, CFP or March Madness and NCAA tournament shares,” Neff said. “So that's part of it, and to your point, certainly, we've had proven success from a football standpoint with CFP access and we are going to continue to invest and have those levels of expectations. So that's good. But it is good for Clemson. We hope that'll prove to be financially beneficial.”

The ACC has long delved into a new revenue distribution plan as a way to help mitigate what is expected to be a $30-40 million annual revenue gap between the conference and the SEC and Big Ten leagues. Under a new plan, a team that makes the College Football Playoff could potentially add more than $10 million in revenue annually.

Is that enough? Neff thinks there has to be more.

“I also think the league should encourage and incentivize investment to try to achieve that type of performance, that that's part of it. But there needs to be more to it, if I'm being really honest,” Neff said. “As we look at how to continue to, sure, close the gap economically, that's kind of what you're hitting around a little bit, and hey, there's no magic number, but just how we continue to position and have resources for Clemson that we expect to be nationally relevant in all of our sports, sure, in particular football. And that's how we're going to continue to push and try to drive within the ACC to have that type of... Those mechanics that allow for performance and investment to be rewarded.”