ACC Commissioner John Swofford said he is "confident" the conference's upcoming network, scheduled to launch in '19, will help "significantly" close the revenue gap with the rest of the Power Five, according to Luke DeCock of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. Asked about other areas the conference can make improvements on revenue, Swofford said, "Bowls, to some extent. We took some steps with our current arrangements and with the College Football Playoff. Maintaining as a league our place at the table, that was critical. That’s significant revenue." He added, "You have all of the institutional revenue sources from fund-raising to ticket sales. The revenues from a conference office in terms of type are fairly limited. ... Some conferences are pulling in the institutional multimedia dollars and showing it as conference-generated revenue. We don’t do that." Swofford said there is "no question right now" there is a "significant gap" revenue-wise between the SEC and Big Ten, and the other three Power Five leagues. Meanwhile, Swofford hopes the ACC and college athletics in general are "heading toward a period of recommittment and stabilization." Swofford: "A recommitment to the collegiate model where there’s the balance of athletics and academics together. I’m still a big believer and will be a big believer that the model can work." Swofford also said there will "continue to be a look at the size of the NCAA" and what role it continues to have. Swofford: "Whether the gaps in conferences and institutions that play at different levels, whether it makes sense to keep all of them together under one umbrella or not. At this particular time, I still think it does make sense to do that and what we’ve tried to do is find the appropriate subgroups to keep it under one umbrella to try and benefit everybody" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 7/15).
