The Atlantic Coast Conference is allowing the University of Miami to keep all of the conference’s College Football Playoff prize payout, totaling $14 million so far.
Schools can earn up to $20 million for its conference this year: $4 million for making it to the 12-team field, another $4 million for making it to the quarterfinals and $6 million each for the semifinals and championship.
Each conference also receives $3 million per team, per round to cover travel expenses. UM gets to keep all of the ACC’s travel money designated for the team.
“Any net revenue from Miami’s College Football Playoff payouts would be allocated to the general operations of the athletic department,” said the University in a statement to The Hurricane.
The ACC’s policy that allows UM to keep all of the money was enacted before last year’s playoff and ties back to the Dec. 2023 Florida State University lawsuit against the ACC.
During the 2022-2023 year, the ACC made $706.6 million in revenue, its highest yet and a 14.5% increase from the year prior.
Despite this improvement, the ACC still trailed the SEC and Big Ten by more than $850 million, pushing FSU to sue.
According to FSU’s newspage, the university sued “in response to years of mismanagement that has left its member schools trapped in a deteriorating multi-media rights agreement while preventing them from joining other conferences because of ‘draconian’ withdrawal penalties.”
FSU claimed that instead of fixing the revenue issues, the ACC imposed large withdrawal fees to prevent teams from leaving the conference.
Clemson University filed a similar suit against the ACC in March 2024.
Despite coming to a settlement, these issues are not completely resolved.
Today, the Big Ten’s media rights agreement is worth more than $8 billion and is the largest in college conference history. The SEC is in the second year of its 10-year contract with ESPN that is worth $7.1 billion.
Comparatively, the ACC’s agreement with ESPN — which stretches until 2036 — is only worth $4.8 billion.
Granting the top teams all of their revenue from the CFP games was the ACC’s attempt to bridge the television revenue issues and keep disgruntled universities happy.
Other conferences do not allow teams to keep the full sum of money. For example, the SEC is awarding $3 million, $3.5 million, $3.75 million and $4 million to teams for each of the respective rounds, as well as a travel allowance. Last year, the Big 12 awarded participating teams based on the higher of two formulas and the Big Ten did not award a bonus based on CFP qualification.
To put this in perspective, Indiana University, a Big Ten team, earned the conference $4 million plus travel coverage with its 2024 CFP appearance but only received $220,000. The rest of the money was divided between the other teams in the conference.
As an independent university not in a conference, Notre Dame has its own media deals and gets to keep all of its winnings and television revenue — upwards of $25 million annually.
With the ACC’s current policy — part of the success incentives program — ACC teams and Notre Dame can theoretically make the most money during playoff appearances.
Katie Karlson
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