Dabo has been riding on his assistants’ coat tails his whole Clemson career. That program may taper off a bit now.
How badly were they trying to get into the SEC?
Their market value will never be higher. They need to punch their ticket to the top tier now, because they were basically VT (if Vick VT wins the title) before this run. They do well for themselves, but their peers on the field will be making twice them in conference revenues, and Clemson isn't top tier in NLI upside.
There is this dichotomy in that as long as Clemson is a top-5 program and making the playoffs, the ACC is propped up and likely kept alive a few more years. If Clemson falters and FSU still down, like this year, that conference is DEAD (note, they're dead either way imo), but at that point Clemson AND FSU may not be wanted by the SEC. The ACC conference title game ratings were basically AAC level. BTW, Pac12 is also done.
As long as Clemson is consistently winning the ACC, I still think they eventfully move, but if not, it is easy to see an eventual merger of the ACC and Big 12. Potentially along with the mountain time zone Pac12 schools that are tired of being in irrelevancy in a forgotten conference, once the putrid ratings and years of no playoffs gets priced into their TV deal. The Big 10 has a lot on its plate if its goal is to save the current setup.