New ACC breakup rumor: Big 12 private-equity money is going to poach FSU, Clemson

Bloggers and radio guys who cover college sports and haven’t had much to do lately have been accounting for their time by churning out the usual summertime content on how the ACC is on the verge of breaking up.

I’m not casting aspersions. The month between the College World Series and the start of college football practice is a tough one for our kind.

Gotta find some way to fill the dead air.

My favorite was the guy who tweeted out the date July 12, intimating that Florida State and Clemson, which have filed separate suits against the ACC to try to get out without having to pay the $130 million exit fee and an additional $400 million to buy back their media rights, were going to be able to make some announcement to that effect on that date, related to a court hearing that turned out to be a dud.

Now the wild speculation is about Florida State and Clemson being on their way to the Big 12, the conspiracy theory there being, the Big 12 has an offer on the table from a private-equity firm, and would use some of the windfall (assuming the presidents approve the offer, right?) to try to lure FSU and Clemson into their conference.

Why the Big 12 would get this financial windfall and then up and decide to use it to add two more mouths to feed is a fair question.

Another: if the Big 12 has value to a private-equity firm that supposedly wants to invest $800 million to $1 billion to buy a 15 to 20 percent stake, doesn’t it seem to stand to reason that other conferences could get similar, probably bigger, offers, once that seal, so to speak, is broken?

I’d like to think that ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips and his presidents are already quietly examining their options in this area.

Seems like a good question to ask at the ACC Football Kickoff media event next week, doesn’t it?

One big thing that hasn’t changed with respect to the ACC is its ironclad agreement between the member schools.

We’re learning this week that ESPN, under the terms of that deal, will be able to opt out of its side of the deal, with regard to the media rights, next February, though the big question – why? – comes with the immediate answer, they’d have no good reason to.

ESPN, as I’ve had to write time and time again, because some people don’t seem to have basic common sense, owns the TV rights to the ACC and SEC outright, and shares the Big 12 with Fox, which owns the Big 10’s media rights outright.

Why would ESPN want to risk handing over any of the valuable media rights associated with ACC schools to Fox, which would surely happen if it were to accede to the dissolution of the ACC, and some of the schools end landing in either the Big 12 or Big 10, where they would make money not for ESPN, but for Fox?

I don’t ask that question not already knowing the answer, just so you know.