Successful launch may be overstating it, but consider...

...there are three areas of the country that care more about college football than anything else: the south, Texas, and the Midwest.

The South and Texas are playing, the Midwest is not (except for ND). The majority of the states / constituents within the Midwest states want college football to be played (right, wrong, or otherwise).

I absolutely believe that ND playing (it was the highest rated game in a week of bad options) sticks in the craw of UM, OSU, Iowa, Nebraska, etc. Half of those schools were wanting to play anyway, consequences be damned.