(01-07-2018 03:03 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(01-07-2018 02:38 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(01-07-2018 02:21 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(01-07-2018 11:28 AM)CrazyPaco Wrote:  The fact that Feinstein actually wrote that "it was Louisville basketball that Swofford and company were courting" is laughable when every major move for the last 20 years has been completely motivated by capitalizing on football and football markets. Not to mention it is completely ignorant of how things actually played out in the ACC when UL was actually invited. It's a damn shame, as he used to be one of the best, but is either intentionally or unintentionally obtuse to college athletics outside of the world of college hoops, or just engaging in being an absolute shill.

Scandals and all, it is hard to argue that the ACC didn't upgrade athletically with UL. And the ACC, like all athletic conferences outside the Ivy, is in the business of athletics and making money through athletics, and not anything else. Losing Maryland was costly to the ACC primarily because it opened the door to the eastern media markets, which the ACC had designs on monopolizing since at least 2003, to another power conference; not because of any prowess of Maryland athletics itself or the loss of any particularly significant high profile rivalry games for any other members of the conference.

There were some strategic aspects in taking Louisville as well. The Big 12 might have found some added stability if Cincinnati and Louisville had ever been taken. By taking Louisville the ACC not only improved their athletics, but they essentially removed the obviously better of the two potential candidates for the Big 12 essentially sealing their position as the less viable conference. Until the revenue gap between the Big 12 and ACC is closed it is important perceptually to be the more stable. I think ESPN realized this and last year's entourage of would be applicants to the Big 12 proves this move to have been advantageous in that regard.

Well, that and FSU/Clemson had made arrangements to leave if they didn't get the football school of their choice. It's really no more complicated than that - with no GOR in place at the time the football schools had a figurative gun to the conference's head.

Well that's the sanitized public version of the story, so yes.