Before we get to the major news of this apparent new TV deal that's been struck between the ACC and ESPN, we will ask the question that is surely consuming everyone right now:
Will Doc Walker be back?
According to the reports, Raycom will still have a place in this new arrangement by sub-licensing its games from ESPN.
There could be good news and bad news to this development.
We can only hope the good is Raycom being forced to upgrade its technology from, oh, 1983 standards. Raycom made a big deal of incorporating HD into its broadcasts, but thus far it's been more Hazy Definition than High Definition.
For the rapidly growing Doc Walker fan club, would Raycom's much-needed move to a slicker, more professional platform mean the end of Walker and all the "Docisms" that have we've come to know and love over the years?
I'll admit I wasn't a fan of Doc years back. Thought he was small-time and not particularly clever. But the guy grows on you over time, and then you're hit with the revelation that he helps eliminate some of the frustration that comes from watching Raycom's awful technology, let alone listening to the droning of Mike Hogewood, Scott Przwansky and other assorted stiffs.
I mean, who else out there calls football players Aliens, Werewolves, Cyborgs, Cyclops, Vikings and so on? I had the great pleasure of talking The Doc before Clemson's game at N.C. State last fall, and I tried to get some insight into how he coined all these crazy phrases. Like a true artist at work, he said he did so spontaneously in a live setting, reacting to raw emotions on the fly.
At this point you're probably thinking I'm going a bit overboard. And you'd be right.
Nevertheless, those Raycom broadcasts would never be the same without The Doc.
But if they manage to get HD that is actually HD, I can learn to live with his absence.
Then again, maybe ESPN charges Raycom an arm and a leg for its games and Raycom continues to do things on the cheap...
Gotta hand it to John Swofford. The man gets a lot of heat, and has received plenty of it in this space. But he has apparently brokered a TV deal that not many people envisioned given the perilous economic climate and the ACC's lack of leverage in football.
The SportsBusiness Journal had the scoop, and apparently Fox's intrusion into the bidding war ended up costing ESPN its hardball stance.
Before Fox entered the fray, ESPN was apparently firm at an offer of $120 million a year. After, the ACC was able to squeeze $155 per annum from the World Wide Leader.
To win the rights, ESPN had to stave off Fox, which sent its big guns to Amelia Island to make its final bid. Fox was represented by Chase Carey, the chief operating officer for parent company News Corp.; Fox Sports President Ed Goren; and Fox Sports Networks President Randy Freer. Their bid included over-the-air and cable components, with a game of the week on Fox Sports and other games throughout the week on FX and FSN.
ESPN had executive vice presidents John Skipper and John Wildhack, and Burke Magnus, senior vice president of college sports, at the meetings for its final pitch.
Here's my biggest question in the wake of all this: Are there contingencies in the contract that address all this expansion stuff?
What if the ACC loses a few of its schools? What if the ACC replaces those schools with schools that are less marketable than the ones that left?
Given that these negotiations were still taking place when expansion fever was starting to spread, it'd be surprising if the ACC and ESPN just ignored it.
Jim Young of The ACC Sports Journal has some details on the TV deal and says Raycom will be referred to as "The ACC Network."
Don’t jump to the conclusion, though, that the ACC is following in the footsteps of the Big Ten here. Rather, given that ESPN is the main partner and that the “network” is part of a regional syndication package, a closer model is likely the SEC network. In other words, this move by the ACC is about branding.
There have been some discussions about the possibility of revenue-sharing between the ACC and Raycom should the distribution of the ACC Network increase during the life of the 12-year deal, but no decisions have been made on that front. Right now, the ACC Network would have about 27 million possible viewers.
Another interesting tidbit from Young in this article:
While a report from the Sports Business Journal indicated that a bidding war between Fox and ESPN pushed the price tag, a source familiar with the negotiations indicated that Fox was not given a chance to match ESPN’s final offer. ESPN’s multiple platforms were simply too valuable to risk passing up, the source said.
Here's another question: Would the new ACC deal make it a lot less enticing for schools to bolt for the SEC, if approached? The new contract is still significantly less than the SEC's monster deal, but it's at least in the ballpark.
On that topic, Mistuh College Football wonders if Georgia Tech would bolt for the SEC if given the opportunity.
Not long after the conference expansion issue really started to heat up, I found myself in a charity golf foursome with a couple of Georgia Tech guys. We were waiting to hit, so I just asked them point blank:
“If Georgia Tech got an invitation to leave the ACC and join the SEC, would you vote to go?”
Response No. 1: “In a New York minute.”
Response No. 2: “Can we go today?”
Interesting story out of St. Petersburg on a new fad in big-time athletics: Mental conditioning specialists.
I'm guessing Bear Bryant would cringe at the notion, but Nick Saban is a major proponent of having on-staff shrinks. And Saban's approach has kinda worked, thus producing emulators elsewhere.
Florida State football coach Jimbo Fisher has grown accustomed to the quizzical looks from fans as they shrink back in their seats.
"We're working with IMG to do our mental conditioning," he said during a recent stop at a booster club. "Now, you say, 'Why do we need a mental conditioning coach?' We're going to recruit talent, but 95 percent of what we've got to work on is from the neck up."
Players can't fully develop, he tells folks, until they learn that their performance is ultimately affected by how to think, how to set goals, how to see themselves positively, how to conduct themselves on and off the field. It's about understanding how to be process-oriented, not result-oriented. And Fisher insists that's a skill set that can be honed just as muscles can be sculpted.
So why wouldn't a team hire someone to help out in that area?
Stewart Mandel gets in a dig at Clemson when analyzing the most anticipated first-week matchups this fall:
The second Saturday of the season (Sept. 11) is going to feature several great nonconference games: Florida State at Oklahoma, Miami at Ohio State, Oregon at Tennessee, Penn State at Alabama and Michigan at Notre Dame. Which of these games would you most like to see in person? Can you remember another early-season date so loaded with interesting matchups since you began covering college football?
-- Drew, Norman, Okla.
Hey now, don't forget about Presbyterian at Clemson.
Big series for Florida State this week at Clemson.
Florida State's path to a top seed in next week's Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament is clear cut.
If they win one of three games in their regular season-ending series at Clemson, the Seminoles will lock up a fourth consecutive Atlantic Division title and the tournament's No. 2 seed.
More drumbeats in Columbia: Murphy Holloway is ready to announce a decision on where he'll end up.
If he ends up "paying his own way" at South Carolina, it ends up highlighting the question I asked a few weeks ago when Mississippi initially denied transfer to Clemson:
If you're Mississippi and you don't want to be eventually hurt by Holloway ending up at a school with which you compete, why deny his transfer to Clemson if that increases the likelihood he ends up at South Carolina ... and ends up whipping your tail in his final two years of eligibility?
LW
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