Southern Methodist University (SMU) is set to leave AAC and join the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024. To make the move work, the Mustangs will forgo their share of television revenue for up to nine years.
Such a sacrifice would leave some schools financially destitute. Not SMU!
There is a lot of money in Dallas and a few years without TV money is no big deal. Its donors have made that abundantly clear in recent weeks.
The university announced on Monday that it raised $100 million within a seven-day stretch to support the upcoming conference transition. And it only took 30 people to hit that number.
30 people, $100 million, seven days. No big deal.
This is an unprecedented financial commitment from a core group of donors who have understood from the beginning that moving to the ACC will be transformational for our University on both athletic and academic levels. While there is still much work to be done, the ability to rally this kind of support in just one short week demonstrates that SMU and Dallas recognize the excellence of this opportunity and are stepping up to support it.
— Southern Methodist President R. Gerald Turner
The Mustangs will still need to raise more money to cover the full gap of at least seven years without a cut of the television revenue. They know that.
However, SMU is already proving that all of the doubters who questioned such an extreme financial move were wrong. Going without up to nine years of ACC television revenue is insignificant to the people who support the university monetarily. They put up $100 million in less than a week!
No sleep will be lost in Dallas, which was the premise of a new viral TikTok video.
The Mustangs are literally dancing all over their haters while flexing their lavish wealth.
A college football program that was once decimated by the NCAA for paying players illegally is no longer pretending like it isn’t amongst the most affluent in the country. SMU is embracing the villain role, and it is not even blinking at a loss of revenue that would severely damage many other universities.
The Mustangs are (not-so) quietly raising $100 million and dancing it out instead. Savage.