First, the GOR was celebrated by all schools when signed. All schools (including FSU and Clemson) signed it enthusiastically, at least in public. This was just after the Big 10 took Maryland and rumors were that BIG was looking to further expand. My key point, however, is another item in the deal that is not being talked about. I believe that the powers that be were under the illusion that the GOR would be renegotiated - as soon as Notre Dame joined the ACC for football. I think that may have been Swoffords biggest mistake - assuming that he could bring in Notre Dame. This goal started affecting decisions going back to the original attempts to include Syracuse and BC instead of the Hokies. Other items included giving ND a 5 game scheduling deal, giving ND partial membership in all sports but football, and a focus on smaller, private institutions in the northeast as part of expansion. (Fortunately for the ACC, there was some pushback by football schools or we likely would have UConn, Navy, and some other schools also taking a piece of the pie.) I believe this focus on ND also impacted the push for a long term deal with the GOR. It had to have been recognized as a good deal in the early years (revenue and the ACC network) with uncertain but diminishing returns. Of course, the diminishing returns were not an issue since it was assumed by the ACC leadership that Notre Dame would be joining the ACC. In fact, a big talking point on the GOR was that ND was locked into joining the ACC if/when they opted or were forced to join a conference. Once ND joined for football, a renegotiation would be forced to occur increasing the payout for all ACC schools. In addition, adding ND would also have increased ACC network viewership and revenue. The ACC and Swofford's big white whale has been Notre Dame. It has affected 20 years of decision making, media contracts, and conference building. Even now, there is talk that "just" adding ND would fix all problems. The ACC incorrectly read the " 'IF' ND joins a conference, it must join the ACC" clause as 'WHEN' and made decisions based on what would be attractive to ND. (Of course, a cynical take could be that Phillips is continuing to try to get ND by adding Stanford as a west coast, private, academic partner for ND, not to mention SMU.) ** Edited by mjfhokie at 7/23/2024, 10:27:46 AM ** Edited by mjfhokie at 7/23/2024, 10:29:45 AM ** Edited by mjfhokie at 7/23/2024, 10:40:27 AM ** Edited by mjfhokie at 7/23/2024, 11:00:33 AM