That was really the only option available, realistically. The "chosen 7" had nowhere really feasible to land. (Big 12 was their only conceivable destination, but that was problematic for other reasons.) Neither the SEC or Big 10/12/20 wanted them at the moment. It would only have diluted the pie too much. When the TV contracts for the SEC and/or Big 10 come 'round much sooner than '36, then that'll be a different story. BUT...........with all the cord-cutting and so forth going on.......tv contracts are going to look much different in 5 years time - if not well before then. You can trust that.
This **may** have been a sort of bluff/gamesmanship by said chosen 7, knowing they couldn't realistically leave right now. They were laying the foundation both for skewed monetary distribution (Mission achieved!
) as well as jostling for the next round of musical chairs to come. Getting a larger slice of the ACC pie will have to do for now. The ACC probably erred in adding BC, 'cuse, the 'ville, and Pitt. Fla. St. is debatable, but probably helped.
If that gap between the ACC and the bigger boys stabilizes, then the ACC can probably manage, even if they lose 2 or 3 schools. But losing 5-7 means we'll have a new conference alignment of some fashion. Do they do something like add Appy and/or UNC-W, poach more from the CAA or wherever (not pretty at the moment), or do they then combine with whatever Big 12 conglomeration is extant at the time? Far too many moving parts to know now.
But I do seriously wonder if 'they've' already started the process of killing the golden egg. The almost unfathomable greed involved here, both by the schools/ADs, *and* Disney/ESPN, is going to leave a lot of casualties along the way. A sad thing to watch unfold, imho.
Edit/p.s. -- As is no shock to many, there really does 'need' to be 2 tiers of I-A. The uber-rich Big Boys, namely the Big 10/12/whatever, plus the SEC, with ND and whatever hangers-on from the Big 12 can ante up. Then the ACC and "that-conference-formerly-known-as-the-Pac-10/12", with whatever other social-climbers/leftovers from the Big 12, AAC or wherever, can be I-A(2) (LOL), or whatever. (And I'm just roughly laying out a scenario - the particulars are unknowable for now.) When I say "need", I mean the monetary market forces that will continue to drive this upcoming seismic shift in alignments.
But imagine the howl from Iowa St., Oregon St., Wake Forest, Boston College, Pitt, Kansas, Washington St., etc. (again, just using proxies) if such are shut out from the possibility of big football bowl games and the playoff series. Ain't no good answers, but "it'll work itself out". With lots of hurt feelings along the way.