I do remember the CT running an article discussing the possibility of the SEC expanding to 16 members by adding Miami, VT, WVU, and 1 other unnamed school. It appears VT may have used that to leverage full membership in the Big East as a condition for renewing its commitment to the Big East Football Conference. What would have been interesting to see to is if Miami had not killed the SEC's plan and it had came to fruition, then how would VT, particularly the leadership at the time, reacted to the change in culture. Even if VT had waited to join when Mizzou did, it would have been interesting to see how the leadership would have reacted to the change in culture and even the increase in revenue from SECN and better bowl games.

I do think the football program would have suffered to some degree because I am not sure Beamer and Company was ready or even wanted to function in that kind of culture. However, I am not sure if that would be as true for the next staff that replaced Beamer and Company because VT could have gone in a hundred different directions. Heck the same could be said for the AD position and even President. Depending on who VT hired for those positions, it could have changed what path VT decided to go on.

For example, VT could have decided to focus on increasing the number of regular students it accepts from the southern states instead of relying heavily on the Mid-Atlantic Region and New England Region. Historically, fans in the southern states tend to be more passionate about college football than the Mid-Atlantic or New England Region. A potential byproduct of this plan is that the Athletic Department could have seen an increase in passionate fans to potentially tap as alumni. It is even possible these students from the southern states may have decided to remain in VA/NC/MD/WV/KY/TN area after graduating from VT instead of returning to their home state. Depending on how much interaction these people had with other alumni via work, local HC chapter, church, neighborhood, etc., it is possible their passion for VT athletics could have rubbed off to some degree on the less passionate alumni which the Athletic Department could have benefited from assuming it had an effective plan to tap in that resource.

I believe everything is connected to a certain level. If you change 1 thing, then new potential results and potential paths become available to you based on the future decisions you decide to make. So instead of ending up at Final Destination Alpha, you end up at Final Destination Foxtrot because you decided to go left instead of right when exiting the elevator.