Historically, the toughest talk of summer talking season usually involved the exercise of bragging rights and not a whole lot more.

Basically harmless, largely innocuous conversational stuff that occupies us until games start being played and we forget about what was said in July.

GIVE A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION TO TIGERILLUSTRATED.com!

Those days of course are over with the advent of every man, school and conference for himself, and the clear predatory reality that has descended.

Close to home this was exemplified best this week when the ACC's commissioner vowed to fight like hell against two conference schools in court all the while using those two football programs' accomplishments as some of his best ammunition for why the ACC is the third-best conference over the Big 12.

The ACC is fighting for its very existence in the midst of litigation against Clemson and Florida State, so of course there's going to be tough talk.

But moving from the courtroom to the field, there's a massive amount of pressure on the ACC's schools to perform in 2024.

And it's not the traditional brand of pressure, as now there's monetary incentive for each school to achieve highly in football and basketball (but mostly in football).