ESPN exercises option extending media base-rights agreement with the ACC through 2035-36

ESPN has exercised its option to extend a base-rights media deal with the Atlantic Coast Conference through 2035-36, aligning the timeline with a second deal that covers their partnership for the ACC Network.

The network and the ACC announced the extension Thursday in a welcome, but not unexpected, development for the league amid questions about revenue and its long-term future.

ESPN had a deadline of Feb. 1 to decide whether to pick up the option for the base rights for 2027-36, a wrinkle that emerged during Florida State's lawsuit against the league regarding exit fees for a potential departure to another conference.

That base-rights deal covers events broadcast on primary properties like ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ABC, and generally involves financial payouts laid out in contracts. A person familiar with the contracts said the second deal specifically covered the ACC Network through 2035-36 regardless of whether ESPN picked up the option on the base rights, a detail first reported by The Athletic.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the league hasn't released unredacted information for its ESPN deals.

Now both parts of the deal are set to run another 11 years.

“The ACC is a pillar of ESPN’s leading commitment to college sports and we are thrilled to continue the partnership over the next decade,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement.

The extension comes with FSU and Clemson both in legal fights with the league tied to the grant-of-rights agreement in 2016 — timed with the deal to announce the ACC Network's August 2019 arrival — that seeks to deter defections by schools seeking more revenue with other leagues. That has led ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to talk openly about searching for ways to enhance revenue, such as discussions with ESPN as a partner to enhance the value of the media-rights deal and potentially create more revenue from it.

For example, Phillips has said the league’s addition of Stanford, California and SMU through expansion for this season created $600 million in additional incremental revenue through the media-rights deal.

“The resolve from both parties to further enhance the partnership through innovation and creativity to continue to drive additional value remains our top priority,” Phillips said in a statement with the extension announcement.

Phillips has also been open about discussions of changes to the revenue-distribution model used by league schools. Just last year, the league launched its “success initiative” that allows league schools to keep more money generated by their own postseason success instead of sharing it evenly with the rest of the league.

Phillips has also talked openly about the league's efforts to find more revenues for its members while facing a widening gap behind the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences.

According to tax documents, the ACC distributed an average of $44.8 million to its 14 football-playing members (Notre Dame receives a partial share as a football independent) and $706.6 million in total revenue for the 2022-23 season. That came at a time of record revenues for the league, yet the ACC ranked third behind the Big Ten ($879.9 million revenue, $60.3 million average payout) and SEC ($852.6 million, $51.3 million) in the most recent filings, and ahead of the smaller Big 12 ($510.7 million, $44.2 million).

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