As FairfieldCountyFan points out, what kind of signal would the ACC be sending if Louisville and its 22% 4 year graduation rate are invited? Gone forever is the ACC's claim of academic/athletic balance.
WVU was a natural geographic addition, rivalries with Pitt and VaTech, plus battling (at the time) Maryland. WVU was the undisputed football power/fan power of the Big East and was there for the taking. WVU would have solidified the Pitt-WVa-western MD-western Va tv market, adding to the market power already in Pitt, MD and VTech. And the ACC passed. Because of academics.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The problem is that Louisville is a very poor man's WVU. So taking Louisville will come across just like the Big East adding Houston and SDSU. A survival, purely reactionary measure. A desperate measure for a desperate time.
And in the end let's just say it, if ANYONE in their right mind thinks that Louisville will prevent any ACC team from leaving, that person is just plain ignorant. FSU can give a rats ass about Louisville. Clemson wants Louisville? Huh? A Kentucky based school that isn't even the
dominant school in its own state.
The delusions of Louisville fans are riped to be mocked. It is an afterthought program in an afterthought market. Attach that to a university from whom only 22% of its students graduate from in four years, with an open admissions process, and if the ACC is NOT desperate Louisville will be rejected again.
So look at Louisville as the canary in the ACC mine. Notwithstanding the nonsense spouted by bloggers and any dolt with an internet connection, if Louisville goes ACC, ACC goes new new big east in a few months, guaranteed.