Is this the end of college sports?

A lot of you will remember back in the day when we went through the first real wave of conference expansion and movement that we once did a draft of a conference expansion draft which was frankly one of the most fun things we have ever done on a show I was involved in.

And we had some rules for the draft that in order for you to add a school you had to have a border with another school in your league. Yes. Right? You had to do that. It was fun. It was a game of risk for those people who have ever played risk.

It was a great game of risk. What's happening today in college sports has nothing to do with that at all. But for those of us who are fascinated by it, and I am fascinated by it, it is an incredibly complex, albeit hugely impactful topic.

And I said this yesterday. We get hyper focused about name image and likeness. We get hyper focused about the transfer portal and all of these other things. Pay for play. And their impact on college athletics is it's throwing a pebble into the ocean.

Yet we see the pebble go in and it creates ripples. But what is potentially about to happen, maybe not in the next five years, but down the road for sure, could end college sports as we know it. Could end it.

I think we all have to get ready for that potential reality. Chip Patterson, CBSSports.com. Come on.

College sports is over. Let's bring Chip on. You're going to help us save it, Chip.

You're going to help us save it, Chip. So I want to talk about The Magnificent Seven, which magnificent is not the word I would use, but it is a fun, catchy way because of the great movie and the great Clash song. And I'm not talking about the remake movie, the original movie with Hugh Brenner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, those guys.

And Clash song is great. But the Miami, Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech seven that apparently met and discussed, well, maybe if we all broke the grant of rights, we could dissolve the league. Well, that's not what they said, except that's what would happen. We have inferred. Right.

Except that's what would happen. Right. So they have all met together.

Yes. And they've all met with attorneys. They have also met in groups of two.

They've met in groups of three and they've met with attorneys and they are sharing notes. What do your attorneys say about this grant of rights? How, you know, all of the different questions are about the grant of rights. And you know what? I've even heard from some people that it's like, well, yeah, you know, who's checked out the grant of rights?

Every single school. Sure. It's not like these seven are the only ones that have looked into this document because this is a financial situation that has been locked in place because of decision making from that 2016 time, which at the time we celebrated because the grant of rights as it was set up, this 20 year agreement came along with this Notre Dame as a partial partner. This was solidifying the ACC. Right.

This is it. And everybody, everybody signed it. Everybody signed it.

Everybody was good. But 2016 values do not match the values that we have seen as these conferences have come up for renegotiation. And that is creating the gap that is only continuing to grow.

And it will. It is only you doing your due diligence as a leader at one of these universities to look into this document and figure out if there's other ways to do it. I mean, breaking the grant of rights could potentially end up with signing another document, even with the exact same membership.

You just don't want to still be at the old deal. So I think that this group has a couple of things that are unique. Number one, there's no private schools.

None. Right. Is that a mistake?

I think that's a mistake. I think that we have state universities that are big brands and big flagships with large alumni bases compared to the rest of the conference. And that if you go to a media rights consultant and they talk about your potential client base and how many potential customers you could have out here, how many how many eyeballs would be interested in your product. I think that these are the schools that would be near the front. I think you can also divide them into nice little even groups because we've known about Florida State Clemson in Miami. They've been out at the forefront of this. I think North Carolina and NC State have to be linked with any sort of future conference decisions, whether it was breakout on their own or go somewhere else, because I don't think the North Carolina General Assembly would let one go without the other.

Probably not. Another conference. We just did. We dealt with that with Virginia.

How long ago? Right. That was the first first wave. No offense to Virginia Tech, but they were not supposed to be part of the first wave.

Nope. And Virginia and Virginia Tech similarly are linked. And how about this? And David Teal, you know, obviously phenomenal. We spoke to him the other day.

He's the best. So in his write up that I think was posted last night, he mentioned that Whit Babcock, the Virginia Tech athletic director, was very much on the forefront of this and that the Virginia athletic director, Carla Williams, even the quote was, and he said, and she said it jokingly, Whit speaks for the both of us. So it's almost like there's the Virginia coalition, there's the North Carolina coalition, and then there's the Florida State Clemson Miami coalition. They all are on the forefront of the most valuable brands to a media rights deal in the ACC. There's one missing.

There is one missing, but I've got my own sort of weirdo theories about that. All right. The one that's missing is, it's not the biggest brand, but I think it's the second biggest brand in the ACC and that's Duke.

Correct. Caroline is the biggest brand in the ACC, I think. Because it's not, I realize that all of this is made for football and Clemson is the biggest football brand. But as a university and as an athletic department, I realize the most money is made from football, but this is always going to be all encompassing. If you're going to have a network, we got football for 14 days a year.

Maybe more when you spread it out over Fridays and Saturdays and an occasional Thursday, but basically let's say 20 days a year you got football and you got basketball all the other times and the other sports. Duke is the second biggest brand in the league. The marketing analysts basically all agree en masse in spite of the fact that their football would be last. And by the way, somebody's got to lose games. No offense to Duke. We say this all the time. You can't just keep adding great teams and great teams to your league because then you eat away at your own records.

Somebody's got to finish last. I'm not saying that Duke will. Duke might win the league this year. I'm only half kidding about that. But we'll find out when they play Clemson. It'll be illuminating. I've talked about this. I think that you're asking me right now. I'll take Duke right now.

Sight unseen. I'll take the Blue Devils in the opener at Wallace Wade Stadium opening weekend of the season. So what is the mission of those seven magnificent schools when they meet? Because we've had the grant of rights for almost four years now. We've had the grant of rights longer than that. We've had the new media deal with ESPN through 2036. I think it was signed in 19.

It might have been signed a little bit earlier than that. So we've all known about it. We've been looking at the grant of rights for now two summers because everybody really started looking at it when Oklahoma and Texas announced they were flipping to the SEC. Then everybody got into a lather, which I understand. So we've all been looking at the grant of rights.

Nobody's challenged it yet. What are we doing? We are preparing what our very pointed comments are going to be when what has already happened, according to ESPN's David Hale, when there was intense, quote, intense frustration inside the athletic director's meeting room with multiple members admitting to raised voices and a few profanities like at Miami's Dan Radacovich chalked up to as, quote, an airing of grievances.

Cue the Seinfeld clip and then, quote, people had to say where they were and why do you feel that way? Which leads me to believe that not that threat was made, but that you at least needed to have the information already prepared so that if you were going to make a threat or if you were going to try and establish leverage that you had already done your research, you had already done your homework. And that to me is what getting together, getting on the same page, looking at the grant of rights with attorneys, figuring out exactly what your options are. It is all about leverage, posturing, going into that room so that when voices are raised and tempers are flared and people are saying things that might be a little bit over the top, that you're not reckless, that you are going in there and you are making a threat that's realistic. What is Florida State's threat? Oh, no, the threat to me.

This is not inside information. What is Florida State's threat? Florida State has the least amount of power because they already said everything like that. Right.

It's true. North Carolina and NC State have more power than Florida State right now. But if those schools say we're going to dissolve the conference and go start our own league. Right.

That is the threat that is real. That is the threat that could work because if you've got less schools, per school payout is going to go up. If you don't have a Boston College, a Syracuse, some of the other schools in the conference, well, then you don't have to feed them the same way that you do in the current ACC.

The only mystery piece which I truly do not know is whether ESPN would agree to sign a media rights deal with this new conference, because that is the only way that you do it. All right. So this is my follow up. I might have because you and I have been texting about a lot of this already over the last couple of days.

My follow up to that is you still have an inventory problem. And on top of that, because win loss records are the most important thing if you've got a seven team league. And I'll throw Duke in there because there's zero. I just I can't even fathom not bringing in Duke with this group.

I just can't. Correct. Right. Correct. So if you add Duke to it.

You're going to play seven conference games. Maybe somebody will go seven competitively, and I just don't think that that's the thought process. But the inventory, though, if I'm ESPN, I'm looking at it, I need to put the most attractive games I can on the field. Right. So people will be interested. I want to create have this network and put all these games on it.

There's just not enough inventory there for me because it is about that. So are they willing to then go bananas in terms of scheduling? Because that's the that's the piece that's actually if you create all these extra nonconference opportunities, you could have some attractive games.

You could have attractive games. And then, like I said, the win loss records matter. So all of a sudden your third game is seven and four and they're not ranked. And we are we are conditioned to look at the teams that are right, that are eight and one, nine and one, nine and two. For the record, again, I think this is leverage and posturing and like the the idea like what is the threat that is credible? We are going to go start our own conference is a threat. I don't think that's the outcome.

Like for the record, you and I are talking this out, but I do not think that that is the outcome. But I think that is a more credible threat than because if I'm Boston College, I mean, poor Boston College. They're the example that we just keep using for all of this.

Yeah, they are. Boston College would be like, you guys do not have landing spots because that's true. The SEC. That's the next.

That's the next thing I was going to get to you. Well, no, the SEC does not want to expand with ACC leftovers, right? The big 10 is not interested in expanding by picking up scraps. The members of schools in those conferences look at the ACC as lesser than. Yeah.

And they don't want to have to add somebody else to the table that they've got to feed. We in ACC country are like, this school goes here. This school goes here.

This school goes here. Minnesota ain't voting to add Virginia. That's bad for Minnesota. Chip Patterson is with us.

Brad Crawford, 24 seven, which is a kind of you guys are connected to CBS Sports. I put out the video yesterday talking about all NC State would be a better fit in the SEC. Like from whose perspective sure from state's percent perspective. Yeah, but the SEC doesn't want state. I'm not sure the SEC. They certainly don't want Florida State. I'm not sure they even really want Clemson. Although push comes to shove, they might add Clemson as a one off with somebody else. If if there was anybody else available that would make them better. And so how many of that magnificent seven if everybody in the league was a free agent right now, who would find a landing spot in one of those two leagues? North Carolina.

That's it. Just like if we got to go power ranking, right? Like what is who is the first school that finds a spot?

Not I said that there were two. I said North Carolina and Virginia would probably be two that would. I think the Big Ten would have interest in Virginia because of the academic performance.

I think that's a good thing. Virginia because of the academics and they are very like minded. Minnesota would not vote for them, I'm sure.

But right, that's fine. But I think I think for you can make your case, Virginia. I think the third team in that group is probably Duke. For the Big Ten as well. Yeah, probably. Yeah.

I just don't see how you how they're they're left out of somebody. I mean, hell, even the SEC might be after it. I mean, so there was the National University like Notre Dame like winning of the very beginning. By the way, I'm sure you've ever said, but like Ross Dellinger's sort of table setter on Monday or Sports Illustrated Sunday, very Sunday night was great.

It's very, very good. And he even mentioned in there again, he does a really good job of dropping one offs. You know, we get stuck, but like you realize there are well reported details in there. Kevin Warren wanted another round of expansion and Big Ten said no. Big Ten's like, no, no, no, we're good.

That's why he's with the Chicago Bears now. Expansion is exhausting for these schools and these conferences and these presidents. You have to provide like like overwhelming evidence of why these schools are going to be better because all it leads is to more headaches for conferences. I don't I think that that's why the blood if you're going to try to call the bluff of the Magnificent Seven, it's the idea that they're all going to go and have landing spots right away because I don't think the Big Ten and the SEC like, you know, the Big Ten is interested in Notre Dame when right when Notre Dame Notre Dame is not interested in them, but that's fine when Notre Dame wants to dance. The Big Ten is like, come on down because even the idea of Oregon and Washington was like, ah, nah, not right now.

And so I think that how about this? As long as the college football playoff exists as it currently is constructed, then I don't think that the Big Ten and the SEC have any motivations to be expanding and picking up scraps and leftovers, which is why I don't think the ACC is going to implode anytime soon. And the Magnificent Seven is trying to get us to a point where the schools that they believe are worth more can get more money.

And we're not going to bridge the gap, though. I think we know we know where the Big Ten money and the SEC money is headed. It's going to be in the neighborhood of one hundred million dollars a year share revenue equally in those leagues. And the ACC is probably going to max out in terms of shared revenue and around between 50 and 55. That's what the projections say over the life of the ACC's deal. Right.

So I think the there is an answer like not a lot, but there's an answer if you take a look at the Big 12, because what the Big 12 is doing, we roll our eyes at it. Oh, you're going to go play Mexico. Oh, you're going to go to Rucker Park.

Oh, sure. But that's Brett, your mark saying I have maxed out television revenue. I have to come up with other revenue streams. And that's the next step for the ACC is what do you have and what can you do to get creative to create revenue where it does not exist right now? Two things, and we're going to have to say goodbye to Chip Patterson.

This has been fun and rip roaring and all of that at Chip underscore Patterson. I think the ACC should go look around the sports world, not the college world. Look around the sports world and see where professional teams are tapping into revenue sources. And that's what they should do. If I were North Carolina, I would slap the biggest Bojangles logo I could on my uniforms right there in the front, man.

I'd slap big Bo right Bojangles right across the front of the football jersey. I don't care. It's revenue. People will get over it. I don't know how much Premier League soccer or any soccer you watch.

I watch tons of it. I don't think Liverpool across the chest. It's standard charter.

I don't know what the hell standard charter is, but there it is right on the crest. I was just laughing thinking about Emirates Airlines. There you go.

Whatever. They even named their stadiums after it. Brighton is American Express, right? Who cares? We love the team.

We love the school. We'll all get over the supposed eyesore of the ad. That's just one thing. Taking games to Mexico. Yeah. How about the ACC establishing a conference structure in football that allows for semifinal games?

Not just a championship game, but also a semifinal game. Be creative. Create as many revenue streams as you can and try to bridge the gap that way, because we're not bridging the gap in other ways. I mean, that's your point earlier. Getting all the way there is not going to happen because you just don't have the bodies. You do not have the human beings on planet Earth that went to the universities that you have at these massive state schools in the Big Ten and in the SEC.

They're just not there. And if we want to talk about the great enrollment cliff of 2026, then it ain't coming either. So I am with you.

Get creative. And I would not be surprised, not if we come out with something announced out of this, but if we move down the line to the ACC going to some sort of merit-based revenue distribution. That will happen when we get to the 12-team playoff era, and when we get to the 16-team playoff era, and when we get to the 24-team playoff era. I think we'll stop at 16. I think we'll stop at 16.

I'd bet you right now, but we're probably 15 years from it getting there, but it will get there. We're not going to stop. Or we'll stop eventually. Oh, it's esports 20 years. We're not going to stop. We're not going to stop. It's esports 20 years from now. Come on.

Well, that's probably true. Chip, you're the man. I'll talk to you next week. Sounds good. Y'all be well. Gosh, that was fun. All right. It is, by the way, all of that, I'm sure, or at least copious amounts of it will be available on the Adam Gold Show YouTube page, because it was worth your time.