NC State Wolfpack: HB 728 Causes Potential Problems
The NC State Wolfpack and North Carolina Tar Heels could find themselves without a conference if the North Carolina legislature passes newly introduced HB 728 and the ACC tries to move events again.
Remember when we thought that the repeal of House Bill 2 meant that uncertainty was finished for the sporting leagues of North Carolina? Now meet the next chapter. House Bill 728 was filed this week according to reports from Andrea Adelson of ESPN (but certainly not voted on) and it should basically be called the ‘prevent ACC from pulling events out of the state again’ bill.
The immediate aftermath of HB2 was to have the NBA, NCAA, and then the ACC pull events from the state. The state lost millions in revenue and economic opportunity as a result. There was also resentment from state legislators that somehow the conference or the NCAA was trying to force them to do something that they did not want to do. Because lobbying never happens.
Consider this the revenge of the legislators, since they are now putting their foot where it doesn’t belong just because they can. House Bill 728 would punish the ACC if the conference made any attempt to move events out of the state again. It would force the two state member schools to leave the conference immediately. That would be North Carolina and NC State.
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So let’s see, if the ACC boycotts the state again then UNC and NC State would be free agents. Let’s point out the flaws here. First schools withdrawing from the conference would have to pay a $52 million exit fee. So there is $100 million in taxpayer money going to the ACC office in Greensboro. That is real ‘unbudgeted’ money.
The threat is obviously the removal of UNC and NC State would cause a domino effect that would destroy the conference. That is unproven. It is just as likely that UConn and Cincinnati would be brought in to shore up the conference membership. The exit fee is still pretty large, so Clemson and Florida State would not jump unless their financial safety was assured. Besides, the ACC would still be the easier road to the title game as both schools have proved. The ACC still has its media and bowl ties.
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It would hurt them, but not as much as the legislature thinks. Also losing UNC and NC State would kill some of the viability of Greensboro as a host site and therefore push the conference tournament to more out of state locations. Hurting Greensboro hurts the state’s economy.
The other implicit part of the threat is that UNC and NC State would be just fine on their own. This is half true. North Carolina is a national brand due to its basketball success, NC State is not. Their television market reach is basically the same. There is no reason to have both together unless you demand some package deal for the two.
The SEC might leap at the chance to grab UNC, but splitting the pot 16 ways just to grab the Wolfpack? They might decide they were better offer trying to snag one of the Virginia schools to improve their market reach than State. This would leave State in a sort of limbo. The Big 12 might jump to bring in State or both schools, but the travel budgets just got more interesting.
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This brings me back to where I have been on a lot of this legislation stuff. This is dumb. The key for good government and especially good leadership is to identify the important things and address them. Ignore the small stuff. However we keep tripping over ourselves because we have to be petty.