Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Costs of AAC exit
Knights will be making payments until 2036, will pay additional $8 million to leave one year early
UCF agreed to pay annual installments until 2036 as part of its $18 million exit from the American Athletic Conference, according to details from a separation agreement between the two sides shared with the Orlando Sentinel.
Friday marked one year until the Knights, as well as Cincinnati and Houston, officially join the Big 12 Conference — a date was recently settled upon between the AAC and its three members departing for the Power Five league after months of negotiations.
Regardless of the departure timing, the exit fee that UCF is obligated to pay, as required by AAC bylaws, is $10 million — half of which has already been paid by the Knights, an athletics spokesperson told the Sentinel.
UCF made payments of $2.5 million each last year and this year, and an additional $2.5 million will be paid each year in 2023 and 2024, the Sentinel learned.
In order to depart the AAC a year early and join the Big 12 in time for the 2023 football season, UCF will pay an additional $8 million under the agreement.
The extra amount will be spread over 12 equal payments to be made annually from 2025 through 2036, the Sentinel learned. Under this agreement, UCF will pay roughly $666,666 each year in that span.
When the University of Connecticut departed the AAC in 2019, the Huskies paid $17 million to join the Big East in 2020, the Hartford Courant reported, or an extra $7 million on top of the $10 million exit fee.
“Sometimes you trade time for money,” UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir said last month. “The terms were very fair for both. The three teams that are leaving have a lot of value in this conference and are competitive.”
AAC commissioner Mike Aresco agreed with Mohajir’s assessment of the deal.
“It’s a fair deal and it’s sensible,” Aresco told the Sentinel last month. “We’re satisfied and we think it’s a fair amount. Ultimately, in these situations, when somebody wants to leave early, you try to work it out if you can because it’s always better to figure it out.”