Look at FSU's schedule this year. The ACC has VT, Clemson, and FSU as big draws, and none of those schools has won a major bowl in a while. The ACC also has crappy football programs in Duke, Wake, Maryland, and now Syracuse. Plus, decent teams that aren't big TV draws: Pitt, BC, UVa, GT. NC State and UNC are okay I guess. Miami is a good but not great game. And everyting thing Weaver has ever said in public indicates that it is very difficult to schedule quality OOC games. He's been saying this for years without wavering.

Clearly the problem is in numbers: the ACC will probably only give you 2-3 'big' conference games every year, and the rest of your schedule will be just ok or downright terrible. If you ever get stuck with Duke and Wake as home games in the same year, 1/3 of your home slate becomes unwatchable. Too many small private schools with no fan following is the problem. It's that simple. When you compare the ACC's best with a lineup of Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska - huge state U's with entire states following them, you see how bad the ACC has it.

If we could actually get Duke to drop football and have Notre Dame join for all sports that would kill two birds: get one TV non-draw off the schedule and replace it with ratings gold.