John Currie, the athletics director at Wake Forest, is keeping an eye on the latest conference realignment news that seems to float around about every half hour or so.
Currie addressed the latest possibility of Stanford, Cal and SMU joining the ACC.
In his weekly newsletter to alumni, Currie said he and the school’s president, Susan Wente, are working closely with other ADs, school presidents and chancellors. Both the ADs, the presidents and chancellors have had meetings this week.
“As you would imagine, President Wente and I have both been heavily engaged with our ACC colleagues as we have all been witness to another episode of what seems to be an annual rite of summer, conference realignment,” he said in his newsletter. “It was just a week ago today that the Pac-12 saw its 100-plus year tradition rocked by the defection of five longtime members to the Big Ten and Big 12 conferences. The biggest element of instability for the Pac-12 was the impending end of its current media rights contracts and grant-of-rights on June 30, 2024.”
People are also reading…
Currie went on to say that the ACC is in a good position.
“In this time of tumult in the entertainment broadcast media industry, the ACC is in an advantageous position in many ways because of our long-term contract with the worldwide sports leader, ESPN, and our grant-of-rights through 2036,” he said in his newsletter, titled “From the Quad.”
Last week Wake Forest announced that its annual athletics donations were up. For the third straight year, donations surpassed $30,000,000 and finished overall at nearly $33 million. The school said there was a nearly 50% increase on giving to athletics.
“And thanks to the loyal and grassroots support of the Demon Deacons everywhere, Wake Forest has answered the bell and helped raise the standard of investment in the ACC — and produced incredible results in return,” Currie said in his newsletter.
Currie also went on to say that since Aug. 1, 2019, Wake Forest is one of the fastest growing brands in the Power 5 with 115% growth of its fan base.
“Across the nation, over 2.7 million people now identify as Wake Forest fans, which ranks ninth in the league and ahead of Virginia Tech and just trailing N.C. State,” Currie said.
The Demon Deacons are an ascending brand with a fan base that over-indexes on key elements including diversity, education, affluence, and influence in their place of business according to international market data firm YouGov.