Emotions and agendas will run high as time ticks down to the launch. The reality is that the first real deadline is the first live football game missed. Not many people going to get bent out of shape about missing a Coach K documentary or a soccer match.

It will be interesting to see the first independent analysis, probably the Sports Business Journal or the Athletic, of subscribers at launch and, if available, a guestimate of carriage rates. That will provide the closest apples to apples comparison. Cannot find the article but, if memory serves correct SEC launched north of 50 million subscribers while the Big Ten launched with somewhere in the range of 50% to 60% of that while the PAC 12 still has less than 20 million subscribers today approximately 7 years after launch. IF there are no additional last minute deals I think the ACC Network will be in the 34 to 36 million subscriber range. The final piece will be a comparison of the carriage rates negotiated.

As an outsider looking in I cannot say how the negotiations should be viewed. My biggest complaint will be that with multiple years to get ready and learn from earlier launches significant content weaknesses and/or technical glitches will be a major disappointment if they occur.