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Yesterday's news of Clemson and Notre Dame extending their head-to-head series felt like such an emphatic statement about Clemson's place in the world.

The agreement said so much about so many things. In a broad sense, it's yet another signal that the market-driven approach is going to take a decided back seat to the brand-fueled model over the long term.

Because once upon a time, conferences pillaged and realigned on the basis of collecting millions of cable subscribers who might or might not have even watched those conferences' offerings on television.

That gig seems largely up.

CLEMSON's PLACE IN THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL WORLD (For subscribers-only)