COLLEGE FOOTBALL ACC signs $258 million TV deal with ABC, ESPN

The TV money was part of the plan when the ACC recruited Big East teams.
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. (AP) -- When Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford went trolling for new teams to expand his league, he was expecting the search to result in big TV money.
A year later, it's easy to see he guessed right.
The ACC announced a new seven-year, $258 million television deal for football with ABC and ESPN that will place the league -- once known mainly for the basketball its schools played on Tobacco Road -- squarely among the biggest players on the football scene.
"This was a very important negotiation for our league and its future," Swofford said Wednesday at the close of the league's annual meetings. "We feel very good about both the exposure aspects of it, as well as the financial aspects of it."
Nearly doubles old deal
An industry source familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press the overall deal was worth $258 million, or an average of about $37.6 million a year. The $37.6 million is nearly double the yearly average of the old contract.
The source said the per-school payouts for the regular season don't increase substantially until the 2006 season, and the payouts for the upcoming season are the same as in 2003.
Despite the delays before the big money kicks in, all parties were hailing this as a success.
"John Swofford was a total visionary of this deal," ESPN executive vice president Mark Shapiro said. "He got from the beginning that we needed to reach the audience from the beginning on various platforms."
The increased TV money was the centerpiece of the plan Swofford put together when he recruited Big East schools, most notably Miami, in contentious negotiations last year.
By the time the dealing was done, Miami and Virginia Tech agreed to join the ACC beginning next season. Boston College will join in 2005 to bring the ACC to 12 teams, the same number as the Southeastern Conference and the Big 12.
The dozen teams will allow the ACC to divide into divisions for football and hold a conference championship game, beginning in 2005. That game is expected to produce about $6 million in extra revenue. A site for the game will be determined later this year, with Jacksonville, Orlando and Charlotte considered the leading candidates.
ABC will televise the title game.
Among the highlights of the new deal will be prime-time ABC telecasts of the Miami-Florida State game on Labor Day 2004 and 2005; an increase from three to six Thursday night games on ESPN and ESPN2; and increased exposure on ESPN pay-per-view services, ESPN Classic and ESPN.com.