Whether or not the Syracuse Orange and Pittsburgh Panthers' impending move to the ACC will be beneficial on the field and in the college football landscape remains to be seen. Much more of a foregone conclusion is the fact that, regardless of how some ACC schools may whine about the TV deal, SU has dollar signs in its eye sockets.
David Teel over at the Daily Press was going through the tax returns of the ACC schools and decided to make some comparisons and conclusions.
Of all the money the conference has divvied up amongst its schools in the last four years, the Virginia Tech Hokies have taken the biggest bite ($54M) and the Duke Blue Devils have taken the least ($45). The gap between them, which isn't much, comes out to about $2M/year.
The ACC seems to be a little bit more socialist than some of its counterparts, much to the chagrin of Florida State. The gap between the top earners and lowest earners is much smaller than the Pac-10/12 over the same amount of time.
With the new TV deal coming up, the ACC schools will see those numbers increase even more. And regardless of just how much those numbers do rise, it's going to be a boon for SU.
In the last four fiscal years, through 2010-11, the Orange received $30,276,525 from the Big East. The Panthers received $34,486,845. The ACC average for that span was $49,391,094.
Moreover, the ACC’s media revenue is set to increase by 30 percent, and the conference far better positioned than the Big East for college football’s impending four-team playoff and six-bowl hierarchy. The ACC champion will have guaranteed access to those six games; the Big East will not.
I've seen some people asking recently, "What is DOC Gross doing to improve the football program or the facilities?" Well...this. This is what he's doing.
The ACC won't be the richest conference around, not by a long shot. But Syracuse's financial position for the foreseeable future (however foreseeable college sports ever is) is pretty good.