From coast to coast, college administrators and television insiders did a double-take when they read the press release.

In Blacksburg, Jim Weaver, Tech’s Director of Athletics, read the staggering financial numbers, turned to associate AD Tom Gabbard and asked “Imagine what we could do with our facilities if we had this kind of revenue?”

The blockbuster story of the early football season wasn’t Alabama’s win over Clemson or anything else that’s happened on the field. The news that has everyone abuzz is the SEC’s new television deal with ESPN that will pay the conference and its member schools $2.25 billion (that’s billion, with a “B”) over the next 15 years. The deal comes on the heels of the league inking a 15-year contract with CBS worth $55 million.

To put this into perspective, each SEC team will earn between $13 million and $15 million per season from the league’s television deals, roughly tripling the SEC’s previous contract. In addition, each team is also allowed retain its own local multimedia rights and delayed television package.

Sun Sports, for example, just anted up $100 million for a 10-year deal with University of Florida. As a result, the Gators will realize $25 million per year in media rights before a single ticket is sold at “The Swamp.” As they say, it’s great to be a Florida Gator, or at least the Gators’ accountants, eh?

“The money is staggering,” Weaver said. “The things a school can do with its debt services or provide for athletes with that kind of guaranteed revenue is mind-boggling.”

For schools like Mississippi State or Ole Miss, the SEC deal now elevates them into a new, mega-dollar stratosphere where they’ll dwarf even Notre Dame’s television money. The Irish’s contract with NBC is worth a reported $9 million annually, which is a tremendous deal, but nowhere near what say … Vanderbilt will earn on a yearly basis starting next year. Yeah, Vandy.

When the ACC expanded prior the 2004 season, it signed new television contracts with ABC/ESPN and Raycom Sports that paid out roughly $70 million per season. For 2006-07, each ACC school got about $6.1 million in television revenue from the conference. That, too, is a lot of money, but nothing like the SEC’s new arrangement, which leads to this question: “How much can the ACC get when it renegotiates its current television deals?

“It comes down to taking care of our knitting,” Weaver said. In other words, win games.

And that’s where the ACC has failed.

With Clemson’s loss to ‘Bama, the ACC is now 9-32 vs. non-conference top-25 teams since expansion in 2004.

Throw in a 1-9 BCS bowl game record, and sparse attendance for the past two ACC football championship games, and the next ACC TV negotiator (the league hired former CBS Sports honcho and IMG super agent Barry Frank the last time) is certainly in no position of strength.

ESPN has made a huge commitment to the SEC, not only financially, but also in terms of exposure in football and men’s and women’s basketball. It will be the wealthiest, most televised conference in the country, and the Disney giant will ensure its success. After all, the company has invested billions of dollars in this endeavor.

You might not see a Florida Gator-themed ride at Walt Disney World (the “Tim Tebow Experience”, perhaps?), but the marketing possibilities are seemingly endless.

For the schools, the landscape has changed. If SEC schools want to compete with the NFL or NBA and pay their coaches $4-$5 million per year, it’s doable. If they want to upgrade facilities or charter jets for Olympic sports teams, the money is now there.

No, this isn’t NFL television money, where each NFL team earned about $85 million according to The Sports Business Journal, but it’s grandiose on the college scale.

For ACC schools which compete with in-state SEC rivals, this is a major challenge. Weaver and Tech’s head coaches are somewhat immune to the SEC measuring stick, but their counterparts at Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech are not as fortunate.

In the provincial dynamic that is Florida-Florida State, South Carolina-Clemson and Georgia-Georgia Tech, winning the in-state battle is paramount in recruiting, in fundraising, in media exposure and general fan support. Beating the in-state guy is critical. Just ask former Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey.

ACC administrators are hoping that a strong season on the football field is followed by success in the Bowl Championship Series. Opening-week losses by Clemson and Virginia Tech not withstanding, the ACC will have other opportunities during the regular season and bowl time to improve its image, and thus, its worth.

The ACC’s current television contracts run through 2011, so there is time for an on-field resurgence and there’s hope that Fox will attempt to get into the regular-season college football business, which could help raise the bar. That network already televises BCS games other than the Rose Bowl and having another suitor in the mix could certainly help.

The SEC earned its revenue through on-field success, not by the size of its television markets or by having savvy negotiators. Simply put, its teams won a ton of football and NCAA Tournament games and packed stadiums and arenas throughout its region. Its ultra-lucrative football championship game has provided a cash windfall for its membership, and its basketball teams have been the biggest winners in recent NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

The ACC is being creative in its attempt to increase revenues. It hopes to draw larger crowds to its football championship game, which has been moved from Jacksonville to Tampa (2008 and 2009) and Charlotte (2010 and 2011). It will possibly increase the number of conference men’s basketball games from 16 to at least 18 in the next go-round of television dealings. The league will likely strongly encourage two of its teams to play the Labor Day Monday Night game it vacated (Tennessee faced UCLA) this year.

But in the end, it’s a simple equation: the league has to win those big non-conference games in the major sports and have success in the BCS and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

That’s what the SEC has done, and now it will benefit from the revenue and unprecedented exposure starting in 2009.

And on your next trip to Disney World, if you hear the Mouseketeers singing “Rocky Top,” at least you’ll know why, right?