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The reasons for the ACC's current existential crisis have been well documented.

The SEC and Big Ten are on course to basically lap the ACC in annual TV revenues over the stretch of a contract between the ACC and ESPN that runs until 2036.

Here at Clemson, the reasons for angst are self-evident: If you're falling $40 and $50 million a year behind your chief non-conference competition, that can reasonably be viewed as an untenable situation.

And the untenable situation can reasonably bring questions about why such a long-term agreement was a good idea in the first place.

But there's a layer to this that makes the predicament even more ominous -- a layer that really hasn't been part of the conversation in recent weeks as everyone wonders when the next seismic realignment event will happen.

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