CLEMSON -- Earlier this week we quoted a source saying that the years-long tug of war between brands and markets is starting to decidedly favor the former.

Where cable bundles brought gushing rivers of new revenue over the last 15 years, the new financial world looks to be driven by big brands and inventory.

Think back to last season and the noticeable uptick in big-brand games, largely a function of the latest expansions by the SEC and Big Ten.

People will sign up for that. Lots of people.

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That was really the idea behind the agreement between Clemson and Notre Dame to play a home-and-home football series for 12 years starting in 2027.

"This is for the end of the decade and beyond," a contact told Tigerillustrated.com.

While it's almost impossible to predict what the landscape will look like by the end of the decade, it seems safe to assume that the market-driven thrust will be severely diminished.

The cable bundle is why the Boston and New York markets were attractive to the ACC as it pursued Boston College and Syracuse.

The Eagles and Orange don't remotely move the needle in those areas, but that didn't really matter because millions of cable subscribers were paying for the product as part of their cable bills -- whether they watched or not (and it was mostly the latter).