LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Just going to say it. I've looked at the ACC's so-called "Magnificent 7," who reportedly held private meetings to explore shaking free of the league's onerous media grant of rights because of dissatisfaction with the current TV deal — or at least talked about the possibility of claiming a bigger share of it.
The "Magnificent 7," to me, looks more like a magnificent three, at best, with a bunch of others gambling that they might have some success drafting off the effort. The roster: Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Miami.
Aside from Clemson, Florida State and Miami, none of the other four is a more attractive football property than, say, Pittsburgh. And despite Bobby Petrino's sabotage of Louisville's program, it is building back, and has produced more excitement and entertainment value in the past decade than any of those North Carolina and Virginia schools.
Not that any of it matters. The ACC grant of rights -- which gives the league the rights to all TV revenue from its members through 2036 -- is the Fort Knox of conference binding agreements. Kept under lock and key, it is under tighter security than the Dead Sea Scrolls. It has had more legal review from ACC member institutions than the Second Amendment.
Those 7, magnificent or not, are not going anywhere.
Here's the joke of their dissatisfaction. What schools in the ACC are more influential in league matters than these?
The reality is that no school has exerted more influence on ACC affairs in all areas than North Carolina. The ACC is a North Carolina production. If anything, UNC should take a lesser share because it didn't use its influence to question the latest TV deal, which now has the league staring at a $30 million gap between its payout and those of the larger, bolder, more proactive leagues.
The league offices were in Greensboro. The football championship game resides in Charlotte most years. Everything in the ACC runs through North Carolina. Where does the ACC Network's programming originate? And now UNC is wanting to rip up the deal? Really?
Short of ripping it up, the schools involved want to tweak the revenue distribution. They say the schools that win should get more money.
This is where college football gets it wrong. The most popular league in the country is the NFL. In that league, draft picks are the building blocks of success. Who gets the top draft picks? The worst teams.
In college football, there is no draft. What is the building block of success? Money. If anything, the schools at the bottom of the standings should get a bigger share.
Of course, competitive equity is the last thing anyone wants in college sports. What these schools want is for the same three schools to win and get most of the money every year. Which, coincidentally, is just what the SEC and Big Ten want, too.
And I have no doubt that they'll get it in some form or fashion.
ACC MUST INNOVATE
I also have no doubt of this – it doesn't matter. The ACC needs to embrace this fact: In college football, it is already a second-class citizen. That ship has sailed. It failed to keep up. The best it can do is limit the damage. The ACC is not going to be a dominator. It needs to, instead, be a disruptor. It needs to find a way to build value for the TV networks, and fast.
How can it do that? By being innovative. By being visionary.
Louisville fans won't like the sound of this, but the ACC better embrace weeknight games. It needs to mic up coaches and open up its sidelines. It needs to make ACC games the best television product they can be – and if they can't be the best, they need to be innovative and different.
In short, the ACC needs to put on a show. It needs to sing for its football supper. They might be able to just open the gates and have great football theater happen in Tuscaloosa or Athens. You can't do that in Winston-Salem, Charlottesville or even post-Lamar Jackson Louisville.
That is not the way this proud, buttoned-down league likes to operate. But that's its best hope, and to be honest, it's not much of a hope. Even that won't pull it even with the two power players. But it might give the ACC a chance of adding value and carving out its own niche in the college football TV landscape.
Be entertaining. This cloak-and-dagger conference meeting stuff in Jacksonville is a good start. Maybe the ACC should've let cameras in for that. Succession-style. Maybe if the Magnificent Seven could make themselves into a TV show, it might help.
In the end, once this kind of talk starts to flare up, it's tough not to get that "beginning of the end" kind of feeling. If ACC stalwarts like North Carolina nd Virginia are talking about breaking up the party, then maybe nobody's turnout out the lights, but at least people are jingling their keys in their pockets.
LOUISVILLE'S OUTLOOK
As for Louisville and its place in all this, there's not much to say. Louisville can't go anywhere. Like the rest of the ACC, it is locked in. As landing spots go, it's better than most the school has had (sorry, I'm partial to the old Big East, but I won't make the argument that it was a better spot).
What can Louisville do? It can win football games. It can do that in an entertaining way. And fortunately for the program, its new coach, Jeff Brohm, appears eminently qualified to do those things.
Do that, and if the league breaks up, Louisville will be in position to wind up somewhere decent. Maybe not on the lead lap of college football, but in a place where it can make the most of any opportunity that is available.
Win games, and you're generating your own revenue. Win games, and your fan base is motivated and engaged, and your brand is enhanced.
The fact is, Louisville can't complain if power players in its conference conspire to configure the financial scales in their favor. Louisville did that itself back in its Metro Conference days.
All Louisville can do is win. If you win enough, they can't ignore you. And if it doesn't equate to big money conference affiliation, at least you're having fun in the meantime. It's a new twist on an old saying – if you can't join them, beat them.
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