These agreements are in place to give ESPN more content. They will have something like 6 linear channels and an on demand streaming service to sell. They need as much content as possible. They should go out now and get the Mountain West Conference and the Mid American Conference. They might even want to invest equity in the PAC 12 Networks.

The Northeast revolves around the major cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC, and secondary cities of Providence, Hartford, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh. That area is much more interested in College Basketball than in College Football. Only two schools move the needle in football (Penn State and Notre Dame). The ACC has one of them at least partially. The Big Ten has the other.

After this, to capture the interest of those areas you have to have strong college basketball rivalries. This was proven by the Big East of the 1980s. Syracuse was a big part of that as was Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, and Connecticut. Everyone should watch the ESPN 30 for 30 called "Requiem for the Big East" to understand it. Does the ACC want to try to recreate this? I don't think so. The bigger money is in football and we have Tobacco Road for basketball. Syracuse is focusing on building its own rivalry with them.

However, there are some areas of the region the ACC doesn't touch, namely Philadelphia, New Jersey, Connecticut. If it is determined we need presence in these there are options. And I think we should still circle back and add West Virginia for its rivalries that exist with current ACC members.