First, I can't say I'm optimistic.
I've been optimistic in the past, not so much about UConn getting an invite somewhere, but in events falling in such a way where the Big East would not be gutted. Without fail, that optimism was purely misplaced - as such, I am out of the optimism business. If my luck holds, Maryland turns down the Big Ten and peace reigns throughout the land...and we die alone in the Really New New Big East.
However, in your scenario, UConn goes to the ACC....
I won't miss the New Big East. Louisville, Cincy and South Florida were just schools we happened to end up in the lifeboat with after the first raid. I'd like them to land on their feet and I suspect one or two of them might. South Florida won't. But past that, they are just names to me.
I would definitely miss the 'old' Big East in basketball. Georgetown, Nova, PC and St. John's - we'll basically never have those sort of rivalries again. Even Syracuse and Pitt would be strange - stakes would seem different.
I can't see ever actually caring about the ACC, though. Syracuse fans are so eager to assimilate that they are practically acting like founding members of a conference they're not even in yet - I actively dislike almost every ACC school and that would not change. There's no circumstance where I would root for UNC to win an out of conference game like I might with Syracuse or Pitt or Providence or whoever from the (current) Big East.
As for Rutgers, eh. There's no real heat to that rivalry - Boston College would be more of a hatefest from the word go.