The Big XII needed to do a realistic study of which additions would make the most revenue in private and only announce once they had closed the deal with the schools. Having a circus expansion contest in the court of public opinion allowed opposition to BYU as well as to Houston to become organized. The Big XII would be better of today with those 2.

It was actually worse than what John Swofford did in 2002 during that round of ACC expansion where he did the circus site visits at BC, Syracuse, and Miami with media in tow. Mutiny at UNC and Duke that was allowed to organize almost cost the ACC the opportunity to expand.

BYU isn't perfect, but neither is any other choice. They actually could fit the Big XII. They actually could fit the ACC as we have 4 religious schools now (Notre Dame, Boston College, Wake Forest, and Duke). Their religious teaching doesn't affect the conference.

I would think BYU as a football only in the ACC with a scheduling deal for 4 men's and 4 women's basketball games per year with the ACC would be attractive to ESPN along with scheduling deals for non-revenue sports. BYU couldn't join for all sports because of distance, but 4 ACC teams could go out there each year in football and BYU could travel to the east coast 4 times. None of those games would have to be on Sunday. The ACC would get access to the 6.5 million Mormons in the US, especially in Utah and Idaho.