So in the ACC, there's Clemson and Florida State who are very good draws. Miami is a good draw, but they aren't in the same category as Clemson or Florida State anymore. Virginia Tech is probably the 4th best draw in the ACC and really Louisville is the only other school that is even remotely around the same level. So in the ACC, VT is 4th out of 14 (maybe 5th).

In the Big 10, you have Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, and Wisconsin who are indisputably better draws than Virginia Tech. Frankly, Iowa is probably around the same level. Optimistically, let's put VT 7th out of 15.

In the SEC, you have Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee who are indisputably better draws than the Hokies. In fact, the only schools who clearly are NOT better draws are Vanderbilt, Missouri, and Kentucky. I would probably put us a little ahead of the Mississippi schools too... but South Carolina is also probably ahead of us. Same for Arkansas. Optimistically, I'll say we're ahead of one of S-Car or Arky which would put us 9th in a 15 team SEC.

Then you have the Big 12.... Oklahoma and Texas are clearly better draws. Oklahoma State is probably a bit ahead of us too while Kansas State and West Virginia are probably in the same neighborhood. I'll kindly put us 4th in the hypothetical 11 team league.

The Pac-12 has USC and Washington who are indisputably a better draw. Stanford would be hard to argue is an inferior draw nationally. Same for UCLA. Same for Oregon. Arizona State doesn't have major national appeal but is a HUGE school with a ridiculously large alumni base. But I'll optimistically put us ahead of the Sun Devils and put us 6th in the hypothetical 13 team league. If you really want to argue one of the three I say are hard to argue, you could put us 5th in the league.

There isn't another league out there where VT would by in a comparable position in the conference. Only in the ACC would VT be clearly in the upper half of the league as a draw. Duke and Wake might be the two worst draws in P5. Boston College might be one of the five worst draws as well (definitely in the 10 worst draws).

Again, the PRIMARY reason why the ACC is behind the other four leagues financially is because the overall league profile is substantially behind the other four.