ACC Revenue Is Up But Still Lags Big Ten, SEC And PAC-12

The ACC published tax returns and therefore revenue numbers and while income is up the conference still is behind the Big Ten, the SEC and the PAC-12.

Duke’s take was $25,396,651.

Not everyone is happy. Check out what Virginia Tech A.D. Whit Babcock said:

“That’s one reason Virginia Tech is 40th to 44th out of the Power 65 (schools) in budget. Love the conference, best one out there, but that network and that revenue piece are a challenge.”

ESPN and the ACC will bring the ACC Network on board in 2019, as Babcock alludes, and that should help too.

Even so, the ACC is probably more stable than most. Commissioner Swofford got the schools to assign media rights to the conference, which makes it much harder to leave and the Eastern Seaboard is a tremendous population base. There’s a lot working in the ACC’s favor.

The PAC-12 is having issues with its network and last year projected a massive deficit going forward. The conference still hasn’t resolved its issues with DirectTV either which hurts.

The Big 12 still has to deal with Texas which has far more power than any other conference school and which could demolish the conference if it felt the need to bolt.

So all in all, the ACC is in fairly good shape. But anyone who thinks things are completely stable is kidding themselves.