I think there were better deals to be had. Espn was focused on the SEC network, and was slow to care about the ACC Network. That could have been handled better by the ACC. The ACC network doesn't bring in the kind of money that the SEC network does, but it is profitable. That profitability could have been used to light more of a fire under espn. The ACC had something of value for ESPN and didn't leverage it appropriately. So it drug out. Our deal with ESPN could have been more ACC friendly. The length of the deal isn't the problem, some means of renegotiating the value of that deal earlier than 2036 could have been negotiated into the deal. Throw in some milestones if achieved Gives the ACC a chance to negotiate for a better deal. Milestones like playoff appearances, national championships won, things like that. The contract was negotiated when the ACC was down. Afterwards the ACC had some good teams, won a couple of national championships. The ACC would have benefited by negotiating the deal with ESPN when Clemson was at the top of their game. The ACC negotiated the contract while their top teams were down, and negotiated with the attitude that those top teams were going to stay down. You can't negotiate a contract for that long of a period of time with that attitude. You have to Make sure ESPN acknowledges That we have quality teams, and they're going to get back to the top, so give us a better deal, or give us the opportunity in a few years to reevaluate and see how our top teams are performing. The ACC was desperate for a network, and we were convinced that we were negotiating from a position of weakness. You have to convince ESPN to be desperate for an ACC Network because they will also make a bunch of money off of it. Which they have. And you can't negotiate with a poor self-image. Desperation and a poor self-image will kill you in negotiations. Espn could taste the blood in the water. ESPN took advantage of the ACC. And the ACC Let them. We were never going to get a P2 level deal, but we could have done better than we did. ** Edited by wwhokie1 at 7/23/2024, 9:42:20 PM ** Edited by wwhokie1 at 7/23/2024, 9:42:41 PM ** Edited by wwhokie1 at 7/23/2024, 9:43:43 PM