1. While the ACC is and appears to be desperate, it is also (and I can't believe I'm saying this) a trend setter if you will. They did the unequal revenue sharing to basically keep FSU in the conference, and now P2 people are talking about doing the same. That concept was untouchable by "healthy" conferences just a year ago. So this clause that Matt Baker talks about, even though it is the ACC doing it, I wouldn't be surprised if the SEC or B1G tries to do this down the road. 2. Of the three options that you speculate upon above, I think the #3 is most interesting and possible, because this can be done NOW, and it is not dependent on any other conference. It is a "neat" way do just divide the haves from the have nots in the conference while not completely destroying the conference. This also could create a more permanent round robin schedule, which I think is something sorely missing in college football. Let's say that the Mag 7 (plus let's say GT) become the ACC Heavy Conference--that would give them 7 conference games, and their champion would be able to qualify for the CFP just like the P2 or BigXII. There would be an ACC Light Conference of the other 8 teams who would get a nice financial compensation exit fees and also be able to preserve ACC basketball and non rev sports. But here's the material questions: How much would the networks pay the ACC Heavy to justify the exit fees, and to keep them close enough to P2 money to keep FSU and Clemson from wondering off? Also, how much would the networks "downgrade" the ACC Light? With seven conference games, there could still be plenty of room for "non-conference" games, such as UNC vs. Duke, Miami vs. BC, etc. 3. If this ACC Heavy would actually occur, there are a lot of other things that could happen. For example, West Virginia might want to come join it if the price was right for both parties. Also, there might be even more ACC teams joining it, then the ACC Light could back fill with schools like Tulane and Rice or maybe UConn, USF or whoever. 4. Notre Dame could still keep its current arrangement with the entire ACC. Or, get this: what if seven teams (the agreement says six, but eight teams overall are needed to be a CFP qualifying conference), broke away, and Notre Dame JOINED that conference, perhaps in exchange for keeping their TV contract? The more I think about it, this would allow ND to hand pick 7 ACC teams (only two more games than they play right now, and be able to stay in the ACC for all their non revs). 5. Any break off of any sort (as I suggested above), would still be complicated by the in state politics of Virginia and North Carolina. 6. This deal would kinda suck for Stanford, Cal and SMU unless they were somehow chosen for the ACC Heavy Conference. 7. Would there even be a championship game if all this occurred? I kinda hope not, I'd rather just play an additional (13th) game if that could be made possible. Championship games are unnecessary and awkward in a round robin conference. Anyway, just spitballing here.