When you play in a sports conference...no one is asking about the academics...MIT would be a great addition for an academics conference..so would Harvard. I understand why UConn focuses on such...when you play questionable football, focus on the academics.
When you are watching Alabama vs LSU...you are watching football and you do not look up their academic rating.
Louisville has a good AD...a good fan base...plays competitively. Maryland was in decline. Their football was in the bottom third of the conference and their basketball had faded..?
Academics? Yep...people turn the dial to watch a game because of academics.
The problem with UConn? Folks wanted to push them into the Atlantic division with Cuse and BC...enough with that for Clemson and FSU who already are mismatched with northeast non rivals.
Academics are very important to the B1G's Presidents, who make conference alignment decisions, and their parallel organization, the CIC. The CIC, which is the B1G plus U Chicago (and maybe Johns Hopkins now), manages over $8 billion (more that than the Ivy League) in research grants annually. How much are those college TV sport contracts worth? While the ACC has stated that academics are important to it, also, adding Louisville just showed how hollow that stand is.
Yes, Louisville has a very good fan base; but, it is small - #50 nationally (Hartford/New Haven is #30) and they don't even own all of it due to the number of U Kentucky grads who flood Louisville looking for jobs. So far all intent market-wise, the ACC traded away a 50% share of 9th largest TV market (DC) and 75% of the 26th largest market (Baltimore) for 75% share of the 50th largest market.
As for athletics themselves, Louisville has had a few good years; but, some of their questionable practices on and off the court look like they may come back to haunt them. Louisville's well publicized profit with respect to their basketball program, which are then used to pay for a wide-range of items, could be in trouble. Should the agency that run the Yum Center fall into bankruptcy, which has been rumored for 2 years now, the sweetheart deal that the Cardinals have would be toast. Talk is that alone would cut in half their basketball program profits. Now, what happens if the NCAA hammers the basketball program over using school funds to provide adult entertainment to basketball players and recruits, some of whom were under 18?