Here is a list of problems faced by the ACC

[married2VT]

First Money
The yearly TV money disparity grows on a yearly basis
With the ESPN Contract being back-loaded and the 3rd tier issues
The 3rd tier issues have been dismissed by many but they are important
to teams like Florida State and Notre Dame

Second the Playoffs
Most of the discussion involves a RPI type method of ranking that will
not favor the ACC especially with the addition of Syracuse and Pitt. They further
Weaken the RPI numbers. The Money from the playoffs will be huge. Even if the ACC
managed to attend once every five years the cumulative effect of money disparity
would be very damaging.

Third Stacked Deck/ No AQ
The Big four are putting together alliances that will make them stronger
and the rest of the country weaker ,,,See B12 SEC Bowl.
Now with the Big Pac12 Rose Bowl Tie and the new B12 SEC tie, The ACC will only
see Scraps. The Orange bowl will not be a BCS bowl with BCS money.
Chick Fillet will be the best bet

Four AQ again
With No auto Qualifying the big four will east up all the good
bowl games( Except Chick Fillet)The whole bowl system is being reworked.
There is no limit to how many teams a conference can get into the playoffs
or for that matter the Money bowl games

These are the issues go to work Swofford of better yet
get to work weaver

[BUGGZY]

First Money
The yearly TV money disparity grows on a yearly basis
With the ESPN Contract being back-loaded and the 3rd tier issues
The 3rd tier issues have been dismissed by many but they are important
to teams like Florida State and Notre Dame

Second the Playoffs
Most of the discussion involves a RPI type method of ranking that will
not favor the ACC especially with the addition of Syracuse and Pitt. They further
Weaken the RPI numbers. The Money from the playoffs will be huge. Even if the ACC
managed to attend once every five years the cumulative effect of money disparity
would be very damaging.

Third Stacked Deck/ No AQ
The Big four are putting together alliances that will make them stronger
and the rest of the country weaker ,,,See B12 SEC Bowl.
Now with the Big Pac12 Rose Bowl Tie and the new B12 SEC tie, The ACC will only
see Scraps. The Orange bowl will not be a BCS bowl with BCS money.
Chick Fillet will be the best bet

Four AQ again
With No auto Qualifying the big four will east up all the good
bowl games( Except Chick Fillet)The whole bowl system is being reworked.
There is no limit to how many teams a conference can get into the playoffs
or for that matter the Money bowl games

These are the issues go to work Swofford of better yet
get to work weaver

1. All TV contracts are "backloaded" which really means they escalate from year 1 through the term. the Pac12 will only get $15MM this year for instance in a deal that was advertised as averaging $22MM/year i think.

2. FSU has Tier 3 rights, and they sell them. so does every other ACC school. it was reported FSU sells them to Sun Sports for ~$6MM/year and continue to do so. Notre Dame also has 3rd tier rights today, do you even know what they do with them? the LHN is an exception to the rule, not many schools can pull that off (including FSU or ND).

3. who knows what the playoff rev share will look like? no one. you could be right, but you could also be way off. until they disclose the rev share plan, we're all just guessing.

4. The Orange Bowl is in the meetings, as is the Fiesta Bowl. they will be a player, we just don't know the details. until the playoff structure is figured out, again, we're all guessing (and all seem to be negative Nancys nonetheless)

5. yes, bowls will skew invites to the big boys. if we can produce 2-3 top 10 teams more often than not, we'll be the bog boys and get those important bowl invites. if we don't, we won't. it's really up to our football teams to produce.

Winning cures ALL of the problems above, the question is, can the ACC begin winning? something it hasn't done in 8 years...

[married2VT]

You are correct
But waiting to see this develop is a HUGE gamble if VT is to remain
a national player. There are only a few chairs left in this game of thrones

[hokienole]

First Money
The yearly TV money disparity grows on a yearly basis
With the ESPN Contract being back-loaded and the 3rd tier issues
The 3rd tier issues have been dismissed by many but they are important
to teams like Florida State and Notre Dame

Second the Playoffs
Most of the discussion involves a RPI type method of ranking that will
not favor the ACC especially with the addition of Syracuse and Pitt. They further
Weaken the RPI numbers. The Money from the playoffs will be huge. Even if the ACC
managed to attend once every five years the cumulative effect of money disparity
would be very damaging.

Third Stacked Deck/ No AQ
The Big four are putting together alliances that will make them stronger
and the rest of the country weaker ,,,See B12 SEC Bowl.
Now with the Big Pac12 Rose Bowl Tie and the new B12 SEC tie, The ACC will only
see Scraps. The Orange bowl will not be a BCS bowl with BCS money.
Chick Fillet will be the best bet

Four AQ again
With No auto Qualifying the big four will east up all the good
bowl games( Except Chick Fillet)The whole bowl system is being reworked.
There is no limit to how many teams a conference can get into the playoffs
or for that matter the Money bowl games

These are the issues go to work Swofford of better yet
get to work weaver

Here's CFN's take on the alignment:

"Whether there are four superconferences or not, we've already separated ourselves from the rest of you. If you don't join, you're not going to get a cut of the substantial revenues we're about to generate without using the bowls as (inefficient, price-gouging) middle men… and yes, that includes YOU, Notre Dame."

-----------------------------------------------------
http://cfn.scout.com/2/1187677.html

By Matt Zemek
CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted May 18, 2012

With the new bowl with the SEC, the Big 12 has made a huge step forward.

By now you've heard about the political masterstroke engineered by Big 12 interim commissioner Chuck Neinas, who – before handing the baton to incoming permanent commissioner Bob Bowlsby –struck a deal with Southeastern Conference boss Mike Slive to stage a Jan. 1 prime-time football game that will most likely match the number two teams from each conference.

Technically, the game is supposed to match the champions of each league if said champions don't finish in the top four and qualify for national semifinals in the soon-to-be-arranged playoff. However, the last year in which the Big 12 and SEC failed to place a team in the pre-bowl top four was… well, never.

Since the Big 12 came into existence in 1996, college football has never witnessed a season in which the Big 12 and SEC both failed to place a team in the pre-bowl top four. For all practical purposes, then, this deal is intended to give the No. 2 selections in each league a secure spot in a high-dollar, high-visibility, high-quality postseason event.

Notice the absence of the word "bowl" in all of this. The biggest development from the Big 12-SEC package is that the two leagues will own and operate this event, thereby setting a precedent in terms of wresting away control of college football's postseason from the bowls themselves. This is a transformative event, a seminal moment in the history of the sport.

Precisely because the era of "conference ownership and/or operation of postseason events" is upon us, and because four conferences – the SEC, the Big 12, the Big Ten, and the Pac-12 – have consolidated their power by putting two postseason games (for the Big Ten and the Pac-12, it's the Rose Bowl) under their umbrellas, the message has been sent to the Big East, the ACC, and the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision: "Whether there are four superconferences or not, we've already separated ourselves from the rest of you. If you don't join, you're not going to get a cut of the substantial revenues we're about to generate without using the bowls as (inefficient, price-gouging) middle men… and yes, that includes YOU, Notre Dame."

Jim Delany wanted to send that last little message to South Bend with his signature personal touch.

You might look at this story and say, "Well gosh, it doesn't really change anything we already knew about the balance of power among the conferences. The Big 12 had already come back from the brink to become one of the four power conferences. The Big East and especially the ACC had lost ground. We also already knew that college football's evolving postseason landscape was going to create new alliances and partnerships, diminishing the power of certain bowl games while enhancing the value of others. We knew that the Cotton Bowl and Jerry World were gaining leverage, and that the Orange and Fiesta Bowls were losing leverage. What's so special about this deal?"

What's special and significant is not that the top four conferences are distancing themselves from the Big East and the ACC; it's HOW they're going about the process. For one thing, neither the Big 12 nor the SEC have formally secured a TV partner for this game on the night of Jan. 1, after the Rose Bowl. Yet, they know that they'll get that TV partner for a very high price. They've planted their flag in the ground, knowing the Big East and ACC won't ever be able to command similar dollars or compete in any meaningful way. They know that they're pushing the Fiesta Bowl off its block and into a position of dramatically diminished relevance; the Big 12 has been a partner with the Fiesta Bowl, but why deal any longer with a tainted product that's been beset by corruption over the past few years? Why not keep more money in the conference instead of allowing people in light yellow blazers to get an inordinately large cut?

Notre Dame might not have to bolt for the Big Ten until the power conferences make the move to 16-team groupings, an event that seems more likely than ever at this point. However, it's hard to think that the Fighting Irish can stay on their independent island forever. Conference ownership of postseason games and their attendant revenues will militate against independence. Florida State has to view the Big 12 as a much more desirable landing point as a result of this deal.

BYU and Louisville ought to be concerned, as should the Miami Hurricanes. Boise State has to be wondering if it could achieve in the Pac-12 what it is currently trying to pull off in the Big East (football in the power conference, other sports in a lower-tier league).

With as much movement and rearranging as we've seen in college sports over the past two years, this Big 12-SEC deal is only going to transform the landscape of this industry to a far greater degree. The large-scale structural and organizational changes that have been hinted at over the past two years are now that much closer to coming true … certainly in essence if not in technical fact.

[HokieDelNorte]

Lack of Money & Bowls will make it harder to get the players and coaches required for consistent winning.

[gern]

If VT gets $10mil more right now, how does that improve the team?

Ok, you pay your coaching staff $8mil/yr more. Does that improve the quality if the schools above you are paying $10mil more per year? Not really.

You update facilities to have nicer chairs for kids to sit in after practice. Really? Are they that shallow (sadly answer is likely yes there).

If you get more tv money, will student athletic fees drop? HAHAHAHAHAHA, that's like the gubment removing taxes - once a school gets its hand in your pocket it ain't coming out again.


Where exactly does all this new money go? I just don't see why any university needs more money to run athletic departments than they have right now.

[HokieDelNorte]

facilities and recruiting budget. And not just about VT. About every school in the conference competing against SEC/B10/B12/P12.

[HokieDelNorte]

And not just about football. About all the other sports too. Clearly there are negatives to the equation. For me personally, it is the loss of ACC footprint and the travel that all school sports will have to deal with . . . . . .

[hokiebob01]

First Money
The yearly TV money disparity grows on a yearly basis
With the ESPN Contract being back-loaded and the 3rd tier issues
The 3rd tier issues have been dismissed by many but they are important
to teams like Florida State and Notre Dame

Second the Playoffs
Most of the discussion involves a RPI type method of ranking that will
not favor the ACC especially with the addition of Syracuse and Pitt. They further
Weaken the RPI numbers. The Money from the playoffs will be huge. Even if the ACC
managed to attend once every five years the cumulative effect of money disparity
would be very damaging.

Third Stacked Deck/ No AQ
The Big four are putting together alliances that will make them stronger
and the rest of the country weaker ,,,See B12 SEC Bowl.
Now with the Big Pac12 Rose Bowl Tie and the new B12 SEC tie, The ACC will only
see Scraps. The Orange bowl will not be a BCS bowl with BCS money.
Chick Fillet will be the best bet

Four AQ again
With No auto Qualifying the big four will east up all the good
bowl games( Except Chick Fillet)The whole bowl system is being reworked.
There is no limit to how many teams a conference can get into the playoffs
or for that matter the Money bowl games

These are the issues go to work Swofford of better yet
get to work weaver

1. All TV deals are Back loaded.
2. The playoff is being set up by the BCS. Steger is the chairman of the BCS Presidents committee. They will not do a playoff that doesn't share revenue with all 11 Div 1 BCS conferences. The 6 BCS conferences will control a majority of the money and the ACC will be at that table with Steger controling the discussions.
3. If there are 4 teams from the 4 big conferences in the playoff and the B1G/Pac 10 Champs or runnerups are in the Rose Bowl and the SEC/Big 12 Champs or runnersup are in the new Jerry bowl you can bet that the other major bowls will not be happy to settle for third choice out of 2 of those conferences (each game needs 2 teams). If the ACC Champion is not in the Playoff they will be more attractive than the leftovers. to the remaining bowl games.
4. No bowl will want to host SEC 3 or 4 or 5 against Big 12 3 or 4 or 5 (Remember that 1 and 2 are gone)if they can get Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech or Miami as the ACC Champion or a close runner up with a good record.

The ACC just met. If the ADs and the Presidents wanted Swofford to do something they will have brought it up. We'll see what if anything they wanted.
The same is true of Jim Weaver. The BOV has had several meeting recently. If they wanted something done they will have let Jim Weaver know.

[sideline guy]

1. League can't produce national title contender and can't win BCS bowl games. If the ACC could do that all the other problems would go away.