Honestly, there is a possibility they were sold the idea of payouts that probably will never come to fruition. Now whether ESPN intentionally knew it was doing that or just made a bad mea culpa may be a matter of debate and even tough to prove in a court a law. If you were an AD or President at an ACC school and ESPN told you that you could potentially receive payouts that are 15-20% more than each SEC school is earning right now, but we need to delay the launch of the network, increase the conference schedule in several sports, and lengthen the GoR, then would you sign up?

For me there are a couple of red flags that make me suspicious of ESPN's intentions. First, the request to lengthen the GoR. ESPN never made a similar request with the SEC, so that suggests either ESPN thinks the ACC is unstable or the ACC may issues with the amount of content. If the ACC has content issues and yet ESPN is promising a larger payout than the SEC, then something doesn't smell right here. Second, the public announcing of the delay in the launch of the network. Since ESPN didn't delay the launch of the SECN, then it suggests again content issues with the ACC. Third, the request to increase the basketball regular season to 20 games. Since the NCAA limits the number of regular season slots to 30 (I think regular season tournaments count as 1 slot), then it suggests again the ACC has content issue so ESPN is trying to make it up with the only sport the ACC has content in; men's basketball. Notice how ESPN didn't insist that the ACC go to a 9-game conference schedule. Is that because ESPN believes that ACC football has no content value?
[Post edited by VTHokie2000 at 04/20/2017 9:34PM]