Let's be honest with ourselves, when we lost in conference realignment musical chairs, was something this good even your range of outcomes? I had thought that as an ABSOLUTE BEST case scenario, given what we were handed, we would just have to become the "Boise State" of the AAC in football and continue to be what we were in basketball, all while playing teams I quite frankly had no interest in playing.
We now have a great basketball conference that we are historically linked to and is nationally televised (would slightly prefer the ACC, but we have also seen what that has done to our former league mates so who knows if that would have been beneficial) AND we are developing a regional football schedule while being nationally televised as an independent. I would argue for the long term health of the football program, this is a better outcome than being shoved into the ACC. This way, we have a fighting shot at building the program back to respectability with some of the lower tier teams that are mixed in with the bigger ticket games.
I am not saying I wouldn't join the ACC in a heartbeat if invited, but honestly, if you take money out of the equation, is what we have set up really THAT much worse?
