From all I was told by those closer to the conversations
WVU tried hard three times to get into the ACC and each time the ACC snapped back pretty hard in their rejection. It was a disinterested, "No, thank you." the first time. The second was a bit more forceful but could still be called business-like. The third time, it was pretty harsh. I do not know the exact exchange and of course what was written down was legalese, but the gist of the conversation not only said NO, but then the ACC detailed why. I was told it was a long list. Fan behavior was on the list but it was pretty far down the list.
The biggest reason given was the mission of WVU for the resident of West Virginia. WVU has to take anyone with a 2.0+ that has lived in the state for the entire prior year. It is all about raising the education level of the state population. A great majority of these students flunk out after the first or second semester, destroying WVU's national rankings in student retention.
Geographically, WVU and the ACC should be part of the same group, most of the schools in the ACC used to be partners with WVU in the old Southern Conference. But, the will is no longer there now. WVU makes close to 50 million a year through the Big-12 for the football program and that is creeping up on double what the ACC hands out on average.
There are still those in West Virginia that would favor a move to the ACC, but each year there are fewer and fewer of them. I do not think WVU will ever find itself in the ACC or even give it a thought. Now that the very reasons that kept WVU out have been scratched off the list to invite Louisville in, WVU now assumes that what they though were business reason for declining WVU's admission was instead personal. It is seen as insulting to them.
You can do a lot to a West Virginian, but as soon as it gets personal, it never goes away and they never forgive or forget. You saw how they acted when VT said we are in the Big East forever as loyal members and then the next morning they had a press conference announcing they were headed to the ACC. Whew was that a storm! I think the ACC needs to look elsewhere.
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In response to this post by Old Line Hokie)
Posted: 09/12/2019 at 7:36PM