Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua addresses viability of college football 'super league,' why pooling media rights is difficult

The idea of pooling media rights has been a controversial issue in the college athletics landscape as Congress looks to push forward the Protect College Sports Act. Already the SEC has been outspoken against such a step.

Add Notre Dame athletics director Pete Bevacqua to the list of dissenters. He noted Wednesday he thinks pooling media rights will be difficult and potentially take a long time.

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“I do think it could be difficult,” Bevacqua said, per Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger. “That’s why I like the fact that it is voluntary. There are agreements in place, many long term agreements, so unless you interrupted those, nothing could be done for a decade.”

That’s certainly one of the challenges. The other is getting the many disparate leagues on the same page with each other so pooling media rights might even be on the table.

With varying interests, college football seems to be moving in several different directions all at once. One byproduct that has emerged from that is the talk of super leagues forming. That would coalesce power and potentially make it easier for the power players to build a strong governance system — and get on the same page.

There’s also a side bonus, Bevacqua said. He explained.

“If you truly want to maximize media value, the best way to do that would be a super league,” he said, per Jon Wilner. “I don’t want a super league.”

But he did note that the formation of a super league would make pooling media rights more feasible. In any case, at least the SEC is against the idea and came out strongly against it last week at the league’s spring meetings in Destin, Fla.

SEC against pooling media rights

The SEC’s 16 presidents and chancellors pushed back on the idea of pooling media rights included in the Senate’s bipartisan “Protect College Sports Act” in a joint statement. The “Protect College Sports Act” sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) establishes the opportunity for FBS conferences to collectively pool their media rights if 75% of the 138 FBS schools agree to do so.

“The Southeastern Conference recognizes and appreciated the many ongoing discussions regarding potential system-wide improvements to ensure the future success of college athletics,” the SEC statement began. “The SEC has been intentional, through years of thoughtful planning and decision-making, in strategically positioning itself for future media negotiations. The conference must retain the ability to act in the best interests of its membership. A such, the SEC does not support assigning its media rights to a third party and remains firmly committed to independently conducting its media negotiations.”

On3’s Alex Byington also contributed to this report.