The ACC brass have been
pretty clear on why they chose Louisville at this time:
Commissioner John Swofford was then asked specifically about whether football was the deciding factor in adding the Cardinals.
"The answer would be that we felt Louisville was the best fit for the Atlantic Coast Conference at this point in time in every respect," Swofford said. "When you look at Louisville, you see a university and an athletic program that has all the arrows pointed up. Tremendous uptick there, tremendous energy, so that’s my response to that. It’s always an overall fit in every respect, and I think that’s what we found."
There are a lot of phrases you could use to describe UConn football in its present state but the words "all the arrows pointed up" and "tremendous uptick" aren't among them.
I read this as Swofford posturing he is in control. Bull manure. FSU leapfrogged tobacco road and Swofford as the conference decision makers the moment Md left. The ACC is running scared and they can't afford to let FSU and its toady Clemson go to the Big 12. FSU pushed the conference to vote for Ville over UConn for two reasons.
Tobacco road wanted UConn. FSU wanted Ville only to prove to ESPN who is calling the shots in the ACC!
So the first reason was a power play about who controls the conference. But the more important and second reason is the contract with ESPN. FSU and Clemson want to keep the ACC going just as much as tobacco road but they believe the conference will ultimately lose out to the other power conferences based on that contract. Tobacco road was satisfied with the contract. If ESPN renegotiates then the ACC will stay together, even if some teams are poached by the SEC and the B!G, because FSU and Clemson will remain in the ACC. They have now become more important to the future of the ACC than UNC and Duke.
If ESPN refuses to budge this might increase the chances FSU and Clemson will go to the Big 12 when the SEC and B!g raid the conference. But maybe not. If enough schools leave, it could teminate the contract with ESPN. And depending on which schools remain, and the willingness of other media players to get involved, it might allow FSU to cobble a new conference with better media numbers. Or it could allow the new ACC to create their own media network. If things don't pan out on this front than FSU and Clemson will ask for, and receive, an invite to the B12. If that happens the leftovers of the ACC will take some more BE teams to make a weak conference that is outside looking in at the big four.
The move to get Ville certainly was strategic to delay the B12's action. Now Ville will be forced to pay an exit fee from the BE and the ACC if the Big 12 wants Ville. This buys FSU time while it waits to see what ESPN does and while it waits to see what the SEC and B!G do to the ACC with their conference expansion plans.
