I was asking the question purely from the ACC's perspective. I get and understand it from the academic side of things. However, the ACC claims it wants to be strong in academics and be a power conference in athletics. How would the addition of Rice help the ACC achieve that goal?

Now if the ACC sees itself as a power conference for private schools, then it could be a dangerous gamble for the conference because it could end up with a similar fate as the Big East. If the public schools left the ACC for other conferences and the ACC only had private schools as members, then would the ACC be able to retain its status as a power conference? There is a reason the Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC only have their "token private school" as a member of the conference. Since both the ACC and Big XII have more than 1 private school as member, then it could be one (of many factors) to help explain why their names keep popping up as having the most risk of becoming unstable.