That’s dumb. Clemson is a national brand.
They are a national brand because they've been one of the top 3 programs in the country for a decade. Yet despite getting great TV slots and networks, they are sandwiched between Ole Miss and Iowa in viewership last year.
There are two components to media value - how many people watch and getting into markets to get passive cable/sat dollars. SEC already is in that market, so there's zero for the latter. In terms of the former, they simply don't perform that well.
That's being one of the best programs in the country. Then consider that prior to their current run under Dabo they went 20 years without a double-digit win season.
So a top 3 program that gets primo TV slots that doesn't do great on TV, and brings them no new media markets. I'm sure there's a concern to that Dabo's been there 15 years, and does he want to jump to the NFL? If he does and they go back to being an 8 win type of program what happens to their TV value?
I still say they bring good value to the SEC and they would love to have Clemson. But they are not as valuable in media as their on the field success suggests they should be.