ACC plans to stick with ESPN even after potential opt-out

The Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN won’t be divorcing any time soon.

As the ACC holds its annual kickoff event this week in Charlotte, the big topics have surrounded around conference realignment as well as TV deals and where the conference stands. There’s a potential opt-out for the ACC in February but it doesn’t appear as if they plan on using that.

Commissioner Jim Phillips spoke on the grant-of-rights provision with ESPN, suggesting that the conference has no plans to leave their partnership with ESPN:

“Our partnership with ESPN is not going away and we’ve talked to them about additional resources. … I’m very optimistic about where we’re going with them.”

It makes sense as this provision is essentially what is keeping the conference together as there have been rumors of more realignment coming. He feels strongly about the partnership with ESPN and the additional resources is a very interesting comment as he would not go into details about what those are.

It’s still a wait-and-see game with the conference and the future of it all, but for now, they are surviving.

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