(10-04-2017 01:37 PM)JRsec Wrote:  The long and short of it was the ACC looked at UConn, West Virginia, and Louisville and whittled down the potential membership long before Maryland defected. What they found was that Virginia Tech and Pitt gave them most of the West Virginia peripheral markets, Boston College and Syracuse gave them a goodly portion of the UConn peripheral markets, and that Louisville gave them a new demographic and one that was complimentary to Notre Dame.

That's the long and short of it. So pontificating backwards into time serves no purpose because the reasoning would have been the same. Those with academic credentials that would also add value to the ACC were simply not there for the taking. So who would add value and fit within the ACC bipolar sports culture was the criteria. Enter data and you get Louisville.

You took them for that reason and the fact that you needed an outward sign of stability which Notre Dame certainly helped to provide too.

That's the end of this story. Louisville will suffer for their sins, but that does not change the fundamental reasons you took them.

Eh, it's a little more straightforward than that - UConn had broader support among the ACC schools, but without a GOR in place the Clemson/FSU duo had a figurative gun to the conference's head and used that leverage to insist on a football-focused school of their choice if they were going to sign a GOR and stabilize the conference. With the GOR now in place they no longer have that same leverage and are just a voice in the crowd, but they accomplished their goal and they've both won recent football NCs, so it worked out well. If there's another round of realignment the ACC will have to find a broad consensus rather than just grabbing the best football program, but that's likely to be a Big 12 school.

For what it's worth, Louisville isn't going anywhere - FSU and Clemson won't vote to kick them out for the same reasons they insisted on adding then, Miami won't vote to boot them because they don't want to set a precedent while ensnared in an investigation themselves, and the all you need is one more no vote to come from anywhere to sink it (probably UNC, with their whole academic fraud thing going on). Cards will be fine long-term.