(06-15-2016 12:03 PM)XLance Wrote: (06-14-2016 02:37 PM)cuseroc Wrote: (06-14-2016 02:32 PM)FloridaState1990 Wrote: Would wv even be invited? I thought there was bad blood between them and former big east members currently in the acc.
NO, there is bad blood between the original ACC members and WV. The former BE schools have nothing against WV as we all left WV behind when we accepted the ACC invites.
Carolina nominated West Virginia for membership in the ACC. The nomination died for the lack of a second (LP4 could probably give you the date, location and time of day).
UNC did indeed stand up for VT and WVa in 1954 at Sedgfield IIRC. However Maryland had already done an end around and ensured that UVa would have their vote at that meeting - that fourth vote kept VT out. And as X said, WVa died for lack of a second.
UNC, NC State, WF, and Duke voted for VT. Maryland, SC, Clemson, and UVa voted no. The situation between the two schools was night and day. VT was an original SAIAA and SoCon member but their President pissed of Maryland and Clemson over the 1952 Bowl Ban, cause in part by a cheating scandal at William and Mary and the ptb in Richmond expecting VT to reign in the problem as VT's President was the de facto So Con commissioner. Duke did not hold the academic based decision against VT. Maryland and Duke NEVER wanted WVa in the conference and UVa would not rejoin with them in the conference. (UVa had left in 1936 - due in part to UNC but that's another story).
Most here are too young to remember the military affiliations of Clemson, VT, NC State and others. VT was a quasi military school akin to VMI but not as much as VMI in to the late 60's and did not blossom as a selective institution until the mid-1970's. That played a role which ties into the Duke story of Bucky Waters but that's also another story.
West Va's mission is to educated kids from West Virginia. It is nearly a general admission school for in state kids. This is the main beef Duke and UVa had with WVa. Maryland's hatred was existential. WVa was too close and could take Maryland kids that Maryland could not. Louisville is a bit of a different animal than WVa, but they have distance as a buffer and super-sensitive MD is gone.
West Va will never be a 16th ACC member as long as UVa and Duke are in the conference. GT and WF have qualms about WVa as well. And we haven't even gotten to the issue of how to get in and out of Morgantown in the late fall and winter.
Were the ACC to go to 20, I think West Va is in the ACC. It's possible at 18, but that requires Texas and ND and one or both have to want WVa and I have to think both would pick someone else for 17 and 18.
Finally VT and Pitt have to approve and UVa has to say it's not an existential no.
Theoretically there are no individual blackballs, but not animals as equal and "Hell No" is different from no. If UVa, UNC, Clemson, Duke, or FSU said "Hell No" to someone they have enough pull for that to be honored, but remember "Hell No" is just not the same as no.
The disservice in the article is not explaining to West Va supporters how their admissions policies create a problem for UVa, Duke, GT, and WF. Going forward it will create a problem again for UNC now that they have restored some semblance of normalcy in admissions and hopefully have stopped recruiting kids who have no chance in Hell of ever graduating from UNC. The cure for this, to make the ones I cited happy, is a return to an ACC set of admissions standards, however that's a slippery slope West Va's "cure" might be distasteful to others in the league.
In short, the issue is not "West Virginia is filled with dumb hillbillies and we hate them". It's easy to make it out to be that, but the issues are really more subtle.
