Per the link below the ACC private schools are woefully behind ACC state school championships over the ACC's history. The stats in the link below show total conference championships since joining the conference but not average champs per year, especially since expansion. If you do that math the private schools in the ACC are abject failures compared to the state schools. Duke has a bunch since they go back to the 1950s but lately almost nothing but hoops. Notre Dame's championships are 50% fencing, meaningless. BC, Syracuse, embarrassing. You make good points about private school endowments and success (however you measure it), but they just don't matter, only TV ratings and TV revenue matter now. Stanford might be the best athletic program in the ACC next year but they will still get awful ratings on the ACCN, just like Wake Forest, BC, Duke, Syracuse, and Miami. Are you going to watch the ACCN or ESPN Plus to see Stanford? Of course not, and almost no one in California is going to watch VT either. The ACC is a lifeboat right now and while Cal, Stanford, and SMU are going to help bail the water out of the boat, it will sink, eventually, pulled down by the weight of the private school members who cannot drive cable or streaming revenue. The SEC and BIG know what they are doing, and they know private isn't great for business. It's hard to imagine the ACC without UNC but I'll wager they will join the SEC within 3 years. I hope we follow.