I don't think any of those G5 options work fo the ACC. Nothing has changed since the Big East days to make Temple a good candidate. Houston is just too distant and has zero connections with any ACC school. Oddly enough, the closest connection probably would be the Joe Montana "chicken soup" game. USF and UCF have potential, but the ACC does not need a larger presence in Florida and I can't see FSU or Miami being excited to add local competitors.

That leaves Cincinnati, which makes some sense geographically and competitively. But UC is a cash poor, land locked program with a basketball program that would do well and a football program that would look like Wake when it overachieved and like Pitt when it didn't.

If the ACC shopped for a #16, the first order of business would be to approach Penn State. Penn State would be smart to join a conference with old rivals like Pitt, Syracuse, Notre Dame and BC where it does not have to compete with Ohio State all the time. I am convinced the addition of Pitt and Syracuse was motivated by the desire to acquire Penn State and Notre Dame while PSU was dissatisfied with a lack of eastern partners (a problem the B1G partly remedied by adding Rutgers and Maryland).

Assuming PSU turns down the ACC, the ACC might next inquire as to whether Maryland wants to come home. Maryland would probably say no because (a) it would lose face and (b) it would probably owe the B1G more than it could afford to repay.

Once past PSU and Maryland, I think the ACC might float the idea of an invitation to Kentucky, which makes sense geographically, competitively and for basketball reasons. Of the schools in states where there is an ACC/SEC split, the Bluegrass State rivalry would be the one in which the ACC school would actually be pleased to add the other school. Adding UK would end, once and for all, UK's ability to give Louisville the "little brother" treatment. UK would be smart to join the ACC, but probably would make the bad decision not to do so solely because it would not want to associate with Louisville.

South Carolina ought to want to join the ACC, but Clemson would nix that opportunity. Georgia and Florida will never leave the SEC for the ACC.

I would hope the ACC is smart enough to have no interest in Rutgers. I suspect Rutgers is smart enough to realize it is a much better fit for the B1G than the ACC.

I would hope the ACC is smart enough to have no interest in Navy. Navy is a fine institution that sometimes plays competitive football against a lower end G5 schedule, but Navy would be akin to Vanderbilt - something the ACC does not need when it is already saddled with Duke, Wake and BC, not to mention a Syracuse that may have little more to offer than lacrosse and women's basketball once Boeheim is dragged kicking and screaming into the great hereafter.

That leaves two viable candidates - West Virginia and UConn.

WVU is the candidate that has made sense for the ACC for generations, but that has never been deemed acceptable. WVU has rivalries with Pitt, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Boston College and, to a lesser degree, Louisville and Miami. WVU would swiftly develop rivalries with schools in the Carolinas. Of the ACC schools that are not former Big East members, WVU has played bowl games against FSU (Gator x2), Georgia Tech (Sugar & Gator), Clemson (Gator), N.C. State (Peach x2), UNC (Charlotte) and UVa (Charlotte). The last time Notre Dame won the national championship, it beat the Mountaineers in the Fiesta Bowl to do it. WVU has no national championships in basketball, but its pedigree historically and recently compares well to all but the top blue bloods of the ACC. WVU has fans that actually show up, at home and on the road. And they watch the Mountaineers on television wherever they are. It's a state land grant institution. But for geography, WVU is an excellent fit for the Big 12 and in many ways, the Big 12 model of 10 schools that compete in round robin fashion and generally try to be competitive is superior to the ACC model in which, for example, Tech likely will not play in Louisville again for another dozen years.

Then, there's UConn. It's a basketball school with a football stadium built at an abandoned airfield an hour from campus. UConn actually left a football conference to go back to its basketball roots in the Big East. It's no Yale, but being a smaller school in a more prosperous state, UConn's academic profile looks better than WVU on paper. And there are no stereotypical jokes directed towards UConn fans, perhaps because most people in the heart of ACC country have never actually been to or met anyone from Connecticut.

UConn folks would walk over sharp hot rocks to get an invitation to the ACC. WVU folks have made that walk too many times before, and gone home disappointed if not downright angry. With the ACC's history of smart decision-making, I'd put my money on a bid to UConn.

If a bid was offered to WVU, I think WVU folks would have to consider it. And WVU surely would have accepted ten years ago. But unless the Big 12 was on the verge of implosion - which is possible, but I think unlikely - I think there's a bit of a chance WVU might say thanks but no thanks and hope the SEC comes calling one day.



UConn is the candidate that makes almost no sense


[Post edited by Tailgate Guru at 12/01/2020 7:39PM]