(01-14-2018 12:32 PM)esayem Wrote:  For the record, the ACC was interested in Miami (so was the SEC and I believe even the SWC, or at least a scheduling alliance), but expansion was so slow moving at that time that the powers that be didn't pull the trigger on the Canes for 10 years or so later.

I don't know if the ACC was that interested. As you noted, UMFL only restarted its basketball, and the ACC wasn't really interested in the risk of a bad program in that sport plus a potential NCAA violation lifer with UMFL football. FSU was more palatable for both, though, yeah, it wasn't like they were that well loved.

With the Big East, and this obviously included Miami, the rifts and identity thing were always a part of it. You had some founding members even saying its purpose was to serve as a northeastern version of ACC basketball. It's not a hard leap to make that you'd see so many Big East schools jumping over. But, Miami...while it may have been only a matter of time to some, man, Florida State looked like the kind of move that said "no, we don't need Miami...and we never will." No doubt there was some support for the Canes...clearly didn't have enough. To me, tapping the Seminoles always looked like the ACC was putting Miami on ice to see if the school would end up like SMU.

Funny to think about the SEC's place in that era. They wanted Miami pretty badly.