As part of the settlement between the ACC and Clemson/Florida State, the Syracuse Orange and other ACC teams are able to generate additional revenue bonuses based on athletic success and television ratings.
The ACC is providing financial incentives in the new revenue distribution model. One of those is based on television ratings where
“…the ACC will take 60% of its base payment from ESPN and roll it into a Viewership Pool. That money will then be distributed to schools proportionally based on five-year rolling viewership figures in football and men’s basketball.”
Doug Bowman of 247Sports got a look at slides for a presentation by Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock to the school’s board. You can read through the full thread on Doug’s Twitter, but these charts in particular would be of interest to Orange fans because they deal with those viewership figures.
Orange football only cracks the top 7 twice since 2018 and that’s not a surprise but Syracuse can start to change that this year. Right now, Syracuse is scheduled for three national tv broadcasts: Tennessee on ABC, UNC on ESPN and Notre Dame on NBC. If the Orange can stay competitive, games at Clemson and Miami should be prime candidates for ABC/ESPN slots, which can help Syracuse in the new viewership metric.
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That doesn’t mean always over-scheduling, but Syracuse can be smart by agreeing to play a Friday night ACC home game for ESPN and looking for opportunities to open the season against P4 opponents. Football viewership provides a strong financial incentive, but the Orange must balance that with scheduling to contend for ACC titles and CFP appearances. In this new ACC structure, making the CFP is worth $4m to the school so
Despite the lack of success on the court, men’s basketball remains one of the more valuable properties in terms of ratings. Syracuse stayed in the top five despite the team’s record and with this season’s squad hoping to get back into the NCAA Tournament, the Orange could earn more television opportunities, starting with the Players Era Tournament and continuing into ACC play. Again, looking for smart scheduling opportunities is going to be important moving forward. Syracuse has to find a few non-conference games which would land on national broadcasts to keep themselves in position to reap the financial benefits.
