Coach Brownell has had Clemson basketball ranked in the AP Top 25 a combined total of 18 weeks during his 11 year tenure. That means he’s been paid north of $1,000,000 for each appearance in the AP Top 25. Pretty low return on investment on Clemson’s part. I would love for someone to prove me wrong by finding a single other active coach with a 10+ year tenure at a P5 school with a lower return.
By comparison, Rick Barnes had Clemson ranked 34 weeks in only 4 years. That was with a team that was the first ACC basketball team to be unanimously picked dead last pre-season by ACC media leading many writers to declare them the worst team in ACC history.
Purnell had Clemson ranked 37 times over 7 seasons.
Yes, it is significantly and objectively an easier conference by any metric. Hence, winning more ACC games than either of those predecessors but being ranked far less frequently.