Four-Cornering the Market

The Worldwide Leader in Sports is once again shelling out billions to a college sports conference for television rights, but, in the process is becoming the de-facto spot for the biggest names in college sports.

ESPN has landed the television rights to Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball in a 12-year, $1.86 billion deal, according to the SportsBusiness Journal. The price tag of $155 million a year was driven up by a late push by Fox Sports, who sent Rupert Murdoch's right-hand man, Chase Carey, to help pitch the proposal.

The deal is a win for both the ACC and ESPN. First, the ACC gets more than double its previous per-year TV rights deal, which was paying out $72 million a year.

The real winner, however, is ESPN.

Consider that the ACC deal, when coupled with the blockbuster 15-year, $2.25 billion deal ESPN signed with the Southeastern Conference in 2008, gives ESPN two of the biggest properties in college sports: SEC football, which has produced the last four national champions, and ACC basketball, which has produced the last two and three of the last six national champions.

Big deals such as the SEC's and now the ACC's are a driving factor in the recent talk of conference expansion in college sports, especially from Big Ten country. The Big Ten is looking to land Notre Dame and potentially some of the bigger names from the Big 12 Conference or the Big East in an effort to start up a conference championship game in football and make its Big Ten Network a more attractive property.