And for good reason. They have a strong history, and many fans that are not alumni. That is easy to sell. I am not saying that ACC teams can become what Notre Dame is without the Notre Dame history. My point is that Notre Dame is a big name not because of their large student or alumni size. The problem with the ACC and ACC schools is that we think our viewership and fans will come only or mostly from our alumni. That is wrong. You must sell your program to the community and region. That is what Frank Beamer accomplished at VT. Winning helped a lot with that. But VT's fan base grew because people in Southwest Virginia who had no connection with VT became fans. Many people I grew up around who never watched VT sports or even rarely watched college football, became VT fans under Beamer. Certainly, a lot of that was a result of winning. But my point is that the size of the audience is not limited to the alumni base. But it was more than winning. It was Beamer selling the program to the community, making it synonomous with the region. Prior to Beamer most people in southwest Virginia and other parts of Virginia were fans of other schools. That changed without that population attending VT. When I grew up in the region, everyone was passionate about ACC basketball, it was almost a religion like SEC football is a religion in SEC country. Success make that easier. Marketing makes it possible. Many of the ACC basektball fans never attended an ACC school. It was a regional thing. And then it grew beyond the region. We need to escape the mentality of ACC is limited by small school size and start promoting to people throughout our footprint. Do things to build up passion and rivalries, grow passion, get the public excited about ACC football. Make them feel that if they live on the East Coast then ACC football is their birthrite. They are part of it. I see no real effort, or at least no good campaign to promote the ACC. Look at the difference the Drive for 25 made. The ACC needs a comparable marketing campaign to promote ACC football in its Geographic footprint. A really good advertising person could accomplish that. Most advertising is just mediocre. We need something bold. Something to convince people that if they watch college football and live on the East Coast, that their loyalities should be with the ACC. Because the ACC is their conference. If we market just to ACC alumni then we are limited. Go after college football fans. Bring in new fans, don't just market to ACC fans. Most of the ACC's marketing is to people already connected to the ACC. And we are doing a poor job motivating those people. Better marketing. Build excitement. Promote rivalries, Build new rivalries. Get creative. If the ACC is going to thrive, that is a requirement. Right now the mood around the ACC is "Dead Man Walking". And so everyone wants out. The audience is out there in our markets, they are just watching the SEC or Big 10. They are living in ACC country and watching other conferences just like SW Virginia used to be a mixed bag of college football fans, until Beamer made it solidly VT country. The ACC needs to make ACC territory truly ACC country. The ACC has a lot to promote. Yes, the SEC has been clearly superior in football, but the BIG 10 has not been so clearly superior lately. So, what is the difference between the BIG 10 and the ACC - public perception. Marketing aims to change perception. The ACC needs to sell itself, and they have many passionate thousands of fans that could be enlisted to help. ** Edited by wwhokie1 at 7/8/2022, 3:36:22 PM