That was Heather Lyke's final gift to Pitt in the summer of 2024. A 3 year extension that made no sense.

Rationalize that one away, with the knowledge that if Pitt had held on to that game, they would have stuck with Holstein.

Narduzzi frustrates for spells, because it feels like he's leaving meat on the bone with the team.
Capel just lets the meat get rancid.

Proceeds to do 3 shots to peel myself off the ceiling

This is some 2020 Mark Whipple offensive play calling

"...As with success initiatives, ACC member schools will have the opportunity to earn increased viewership distributions from the ACC’s media revenues and will be incentivized to take actions that enhance viewership across the ACC’s 18 member schools." (2/2)
theacc.com/news/2025/3/...

This was the ACC press release.
"...members of the ACC have agreed to build upon the previously announced success initiatives by creating an additional revenue distribution model that is based on viewership. ... focused on annual football and men’s basketball viewership..." (1/2)

No. Unsurprisingly they keep the formula vague. The only way we ever get clues are FOIAs from schools not in PA or when VT's athletic department showed where VT was in TV viewership in prior years in a presentation to their board of trustees (or whatever they call them in that commonwealth).

The trade off is obvious when Pitt ends up 2-2 in non-con and is then dismissed from any rankings or discussion going into ACC play. Then the ratings for Pitt game in the ACC portion suffer. Both because of where placed in the ESPN broadcasts and interest.
There isn't a great answer or choice.

The ACC revenue system incentivizes scheduling good non-con. The higher the overall TV ratings the team gets, the more money distributed from the TV rights. It's why (like it or not) getting ND on the schedule matters. And why Pitt almost has to have 2 P5 non-cons/year.