The major reason I give the ACC grief is Swofford. Hell, truth be told, I've got College Park roots myself (not that those will be relevant to the ACC much longer). Going back to the first Big East raid, here's what has happened (to the best of my memory):
PAC - added Colorado and Utah.
SEC - added TAMU and Missouri.
B1G - added Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers.
B12 - added WVU and TCU. Lost Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas A&M.
ACC - added BCU, VaTech, Miami, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville. Partially added ND. Lost Maryland.
Can you spot the elephant in that living room? I don't mean the conference, I mean the type of school being added (or lost). PAC adds two state flagships. SEC adds two state flagships (OK, TAMU might not be a flagship but Texas is really big and A&M is damn close). B1G adds three flagships. B12 adds a flagship but loses 4. ACC adds no flagships and loses 1. Conference membership now stands as follows:
PAC - Seven flagships (I'm considering Cal and UCLA flagships for the same reason I feel TAMU is), three state #2 publics, and two privates.
SEC - Eleven flagships, two state #2 publics, and one private.
B1G - Eleven flagships, two state #2 publics, and one private.
B12 - Four flagships, three state #2 publics, Texas Tech, and two privates.
ACC - Two flagships, seven state #2 publics, and five-and-a-half privates.
Swofford may have been hamstrung (as far as adding UConn and Rutgers rather than Pitt and Cuse) to a degree by the "football" schools but its his JOB to overcome those objections by presenting a clear and compelling vision for the conference. And I swear that guy's eyesight is 20/ten trillion.
NOTHING Swofford told the FB-first schools was going to change their minds. They did not want to hear 'potential' or any other adjective that might've swayed them on UConn-RU. They wanted a school who was successful NOW, and, UL could not have picked a better time to have an 11-2 season. Can they sustain it that? We'll see.
Swofford is a secretive, i.e., sneaky, little bastard. His first Big East raid was done so much under cover of darkness it made me wonder if he also planned the Colts escape from Baltimore. I think his current problems holding the conference together can be traced directly to that raid (not entirely cause he's sure as exacerbated things since). The best acquisition in that first raid, VaTech, fell into his lap because the Virginia legislature had better sense than he did.
The 2003 expansion was not his finest hour, but, BE schools coming to the ACC was not an entirely new idea, nor, was it even his. You can thank your former commish, Mike Tranghese, for that. He even floated the idea to Swofford as far back as 1999.
Given The Swoff's inability to identify quality recruits for the conference is it any wonder the football's told him to sit down and stfu when the desire to replace Maryland arose. Louisville was the small minded. The move of a tactician, not a strategist. Is that have kept them ahead of the B12 in the race to the bottom? Maybe, but so what?
To answer your question, though, Rutgers geography and flagship status is where the ACC should have been aiming. Flagship status implies the resources of the state are behind the institution. Rutgers and UConn (together with BC and Syracuse) would have left the ACC unchallenged on the entire North Atlantic coast. The northeast super region market could have better positioned the ACC to challenge the SEC on the South Atlantic coast. Would it have been a slam dunk? Of course not, but which of life's worthwhile goals are. The thing is Swoffy didn't even try, probably didn't even know TO try.