On Wednesday, the ACC and ESPN announced an extension of their media deal to reflect the additions of Syracuse and Pitt.
ESPN will have games on ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN 3D, various other North American outlets and also internationally.
Unfortunately, they've also gotten the rights to sponsor the ACC Tournament (and all ACC tournaments), which now, presumably, will be something like The ACC Tournament On ESPN...unless they are allowed to resell the rights in which case all bets are off.
The new deal is for $3.6 billion, up from $1.86 billion. The payout goes from $13 million per schools (at 12) to $17 million (at 14).
The original deal ran from 2023; it now runs through 2027.
The ACC's deal is now roughly equivalent to the SEC's, which also works out to $17 million per school. No one will be happier about this than Maryland, as the Terps have hit a major money crunch.
Who's paying attention? Well, the Big East first of all, with regret: they turned down a $1 billion dollar extension last year only to watch the conference blow apart. Secondly? Notre Dame.
They lost the money they might have gotten from the Big East for basketball. Football has always been independent and the Irish presumably still do well there. But at some point, there will be a considerable difference between their income and that of the ACC, the SEC, and the Big Ten, particularly if football struggles.