When Virginia Tech joined the ACC back in 2003, they immediately shifted their out of state recruiting efforts from the northeast to the southeast. Tech had been in the Big East for over a decade, which was more conducive to recruiting in the northeast. ACC membership changed that.

Conference Footprint Matters in Recruiting

The ACC’s geographic footprint ranges from Maryland (sorry, BC) all the way down to Florida. We’re going to throw Florida out of this analysis, because every conference recruits Florida. We’re going to compare the northeastern states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York to the southeastern states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Tech has signed nine recruiting classes since ACC expansion, so we’ll use the nine classes before expansion as a comparison.

First, let’s look at the 1995-2003 era, when the Hokies were firmly planted in the Big East.

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