Brownlow's Twitter Mailbag: Can the grant of rights save the ACC, last chances for summer fun and more

Only a few more weeks of off-season left before this Mailbag shuts down! I've enjoyed each week of this, getting to hear from all of you and ponder your questions. This week, we'll get into whether or not the grant of rights deal will actually keep the ACC intact until 2036, Monday morning-quarterback John Swofford's TV deal, which ACC coach would you pick to be on a plane with a hijacker and summer activities as the season winds down. So let's get into it!

I honestly don't see how that's possible. It expires in 2036, and by then, the revenue gap between the ACC and the Big Ten and SEC will be too much to overcome. It becomes cheaper to leave the ACC once it gets later in the agreement, but the league is in a tough spot. I know the league is supposedly open to expansion, but some of the biggest fish in that pond that could even possibly get bites for more ESPN money have already been caught in Oregon and Washington. And at this point, it would just mean more mouths to feed, which means less money for each school unless they could renegotiate a deal with more money. And none of them want less money.

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But at a certain point, if you're an ACC school, you have to worry about your long-term survival if this goes on. You have to worry about which leagues might want you, which leagues might still want you in a few years and how many years you can wait before it gets to be too late. Football is the moneymaker for almost every FBS program and if you're making far less than your direct competitors, it's going to get tougher to reach the promised land of the Playoff. And every year the gap widens, it gets more serious.

I honestly think we'll reach a tipping point within the next three years. Either the member schools shrug their collective shoulders because they know they're stuck here, or the ones that have the willingness make the move to bolt and eat the money for awhile.

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I'm sure even John Swofford would tell you that of course it's fair to go back and look at the decision he made in the context of the time that he made it and evaluate it. I could be very wrong on this, but I don't remember a lot of pushback on it at the time and it was widely praised when it was made. It's my opinion that the league is in the situation it's in now with the TV deal because of bad luck in the sense that it made the most sense at the time and only with hindsight does it look bad. Could it have been shorter term? Probably. But it was also done to lock in teams that were starting to get a little restless, if you'll remember.

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As for the grant of rights extension in 2016, you could argue that was also some bad timing too because the big deals would come after the ACC's. And it was meant to give the league a network, which it wanted to be lucrative. Should Swofford have known better by then? Maybe, but it was meant to keep the league intact, remember. Right now, it's the only thing that's holding the league together, but is it powerful enough to do that forever? No, but in the short term, it's going to be difficult to get around. If schools could have gotten around it by now, you'd think they would have tried.

If you want to say it tarnishes Swoff's legacy because of a pure scoreboard situation, fine. Clearly, it hasn't been the best decision for the ACC because it's now dependent on how much (or how little) ESPN wants to invest into it. It doesn't tarnish his legacy to me. One of the best things about his leadership to me was his ability to get the schools back on the same page when they had some, um, disagreements. Not all of the leadership of the member schools liked Swofford, but almost all of them respected him, as did his fellow conference commissioners. They'd come together for the league's best interests if he convinced them it was the way to go, and he saved the league quite a few times when things looked tenuous. Judge him however you'd like, but that's what I'll remember the most about his leadership.

This is a tough one because my answer to the question might also be my answer to the question of which coach I'd least like to be on my flight in a hijack situation. Well, first, let me point out that I obviously never want to be in any sort of a hijack situation. But would I prefer the coach that could play it cool? The one who'd attempt to attack the hijackers and regain control of the airplane? Or the one who would try to negotiate with the hijackers? And I'd like to think that I'd want a coach that would attack, but it's legit a tough call. So there's no other answer for me than Pitt head football coach Pat Narduzzi. That's a risky strategy that could backfire fatally almost instantly, though, so it could also go very badly.

Some of these are going to sound super obvious, but I'll dress them up a little bit to give you that extra summer flavor:

1. Go to a pool that serves frozen drinks and partake in said frozen drinks. Give yourself a full day to go to the pool and plan on a 12-5 type of afternoon with your friends as you drink and chat poolside. Extra points if you can drink something out of a coconut or a pineapple.

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2. Get to the beach. Even if it's just for a day. It's easy for all of us to get too busy during summertime even for a trip to the beach and before you know it, it's August and oops, you haven't been to the beach all summer. OK, maybe that's just me. But I'll be at the beach soon and so should you be. Don't wait until it's too close to back to school time and then you can't make it happen. You MAKE it happen, even if it's just a day trip to Wrightsville/Carolina Beach.

3. Take a staycation. Find a hotel with a rooftop pool or bar or at least some combination of the aforementioned two, and either go by yourself or with your spouse or your friends and have a great time for a day or two.

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4. Put on a sundress or a flowing skirt or that Hawaiian print dress you can only wear in the summer and do some outdoor shopping. There are all kinds of pop-up markets and otherwise around the Triangle. Find one and pick a day and rock your best summer outfit and feel amazing while you pick up some cool local products.