Milk and Honey...Not Yet

This recent article about the ACC and the financial gains from the hostel raid on the Big East demonstrates one of the issues with trying the follow the money. For example:

The conference had two more mouths to feed in 2004-05, but it didn't yet have the full financial benefit of expansion because with 11 members, it was unable to play a lucrative championship football game under NCAA rules.

With 11 schools, the revenue distributed to the nine consistent members dipped 1.75 percent from the previous year ($97,972,822 to $96,257,584).Virginia Tech and Miami each received a previously negotiated sum of $6.25 million as base compensation, and they each received a pro-rated share of the league's budget surplus.

At times it gets difficult to parse the information sports writers tend not to be savvy when looking at the dollars and cents (sense?) of the game. The above is about as clear as mud! Is the $96 million spilt 9 or 11 ways? Where does the $6.25 million figure into the total to be split?

One element of the ACC puzzle that does seem clear, although not detailed clearly in the article, is that the land of dollars lay just ahead with $39 million from Disney and $6 million from the championship game.