It is possible that the ACC will not expand for another 20 years and I will not dogmatically insist otherwise.
Several people have brought up Louisville. In case you are wondering why they got the invite and not UConn. I will give you a little background information that you may have missed: When Maryland left, it was rumored (and there may actually be factual reports) that UConn was the #1 choice of the majority of the ACC members and of ESPN to replace UMD. But an FSU representative was outspoken and insistent that Louisville was the better choice because they could best boost the ACC's football reputation and they were more culturally a like the southern schools. At the time this was happening there was a lot of conference turmoil with long time members of other conferences going elsewhere. So yes, it was FSU doing a little sabre-rattling to get it's way, but lost in all of this is the role UNC played. I think it was in 2011 or 2012 that UNC went up to Louisville and played them in football. UNC lost the game, but UL made a really good impression on them and when the ACC had to add another school, UNC was also in Louisville's corner. In all, FSU, UNC and Clemson were for sure pro-Louisville, possibly even BC, but I don't remember their name being mentioned.
I remember wanting Navy in football and Georgetown in all other sports to get back into Maryland if such a thing could be worked out and a close 2nd choice for me was UL. I will say this, Louisville has been a wonderful addition and nobody in the ACC is crying over UMD's departure, it feels like UL has been a member for 60 years. I mean no disrespect to UConn.
Notre Dame: the ACC is holding out for the small chance that ND will eventually join up in football and I think it is the right thing to do. Some speculate that their NBC contract is holding it up, others say that when they will join up if/when the playoffs expand and P5 conference winners get in automatically. I like ND right where they are just fine, it's another great OOC game 1 in 3 years and you don't have to compete with them for the ACC title. The relationship with the ACC and ND is a win-win. It's assumed and not a hard-fact that ND get's to choose it's expansion partner.
A couple things that should interest UConn fans:
(1) Whether the Big12 extends it's Grant of Rights. If they do, it surely means the ACC will not be poaching from the Big12 and I think this is both a good thing for the ACC and schools out in the mid-west. If the Big12 did fall apart, then the Big Ten and SEC will cherry pick who they want, further strengthening those conferences and separating themselves even more from the ACC. Rumor has it that Texas was interested in the ACC, some even say that is a fact, though I don't remember reading a report saying if it was or not. I just think culturally and geographically it's just a weird fit. On the other hand, if the Big12 does not extend their GoR and actually does get picked a part, it might lose it's P5 status, but would most certainly expand with the best of the AAC and MWC and still be a very strong conference. This actually happening is still several years down the road.
(2) Do you remember back in February of this year when the NCAA voted on a couple of major things? One of those things was allowing a conference championship game to be played with 2 divisions of less than 6 members in a conference. That one passed. The other thing was "conference autonomy", it would allow a conference to make it's own rules to set up a conference championship game. The ACC was pushing for that one and it did not pass. In theory, the ACC could do away with divisions, each team would keep 2-3 annual games while rotating every body else and the ACC could use it's own metrics to send the two best teams to the ACCCG. I'm going to address this a little more and how this could involve UConn in a later post. It involves some inherit problems that come with expanding so large, so I look forward to elaborating on this when I get some more time.