Part IV: Expansion
Another front [ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions Jeramy] Michiaels is dealing with is the expansion to 17 full-member schools (Notre Dame is a member outside football). That comes with Cal, Stanford, and SMU joining the conference this summer.
“It means we have to get really creative with scheduling,” Michiaels said. “We’ve worked hand-in-hand with the conference, with every one of their sport administrators, to not only make sure that that we have an opportunity to schedule in a fair and equitable way, but also to create opportunities where we can be creative with television exposure and television opportunities. And that’s not just with ACC Network, but that’s all across ESPN.
“Whether that be scheduling games for Thursday nights, Friday nights, being strategic with sports…as we get into basketball, you may start to see some triple headers on ACC Network where they they didn’t exist before. So it creates an exciting environment. When I took this job in 2021, I didn’t imagine that I would be scheduling West Coast windows.
“But after visiting those schools and seeing the excitement that’s happening on those campuses between Stanford and Cal, and at SMU, there’s some really amazing excitement around that school as well, it’s inspiring just to see the excitement that surrounds new schools coming in to be a part of the brand of the ACC. It’s a really exciting time to be a part of the conference.”
[Mike] Cambareri, who came in as ACCN’s coordinating producer last year, said the new additions are a big opportunity for the network.
“We’re excited with these new fanbases. Obviously there’s been a lot of attention paid to the economics of college football, and we’re penetrating the Dallas market and penetrating Silicon Valley. I don’t think it’s a bad thing if you’re trying to grow a brand. From our standpoint, we’ve had nothing but great experiences so far with SMU, Cal, and Stanford.
“I think for the people who are East Coast-based, like myself, I live in New York, if we’re out there in October or November, I don’t think we’re complaining about the weather either. But, you know, they’re all impressive institutions, and I think their excitement to be joining the conference has been summarized in the times we’ve been there. And I think we’re just getting used to working with one another. It’s a new batch, it’s a good working relationship.”
Cambareri said the ACC Football Road Trip content initiative that’s seen them visit all 17 schools this summer has been a good way to connect with the new members.
“It’s been good to kind of do that, knowing that we may be seeing them for ACC Huddle along the course of the year, that kind of setting up like we do with all schools we haven’t been to yet. I was just here at Louisville and we were doing a site survey for on a potential Saturday ‘Where will our field set be? Where is our rain location? Where is our production office? Where is our tailgate, which is where we’re going to be doing on the majority of our programming early to kind of leverage fan engagement and the excitement of fans going into a game?'”
He said that in-person scouting brings major benefits.
‘We had a great conversation with Louisville today. They have an unbelievable area called ‘The Alley,’ which, if we come here for Huddle during the course of the year, it’s going to be a great location to do our 11 a.m. show from in addition to some of our daytime programming during Saturdays.”
But while having all these schools can be great, Michiaels said there can be hurdles from how much content the schools are providing and how to best schedule it.
“There are a lot of challenges. It’s not just finding the right windows to to put the games in the best light possible, but the ACC sponsors so many more sports than most other power conferences. So there is a delicate balance that happens with that. But we’re very strategic with how we go about doing that. We try to find as equitable of a path to get everybody some exposure.
“Sometimes, that’s more challenging than others. We have to ask a lot of schools to maybe change dates, change times. They’ve been great working with us to be able to make those things happen, and that’s the value of television and the value of having a 24/7 conference network dedicated to the ACC. It’s really valuable to the administrators and the coaches that we work with. And so it’s a team effort, not only with the ESPN team but with the schools and the conference as well.”
Read on for more on what the network has gained from heading to campuses.
