The first thing I would do as the ACC is ditch the partial members. By definition it is an unstable arrangement. It is debatable if Notre Dame is worth the effort, but if they are, they are the only ones that would be.

WVU brings nice assets but nothing remarkable. My point is that WVU is not very ACC-like. The ACC wants members that sees Tobacco Road as some sort of Holy Ground. Obviously, members like FSU and Clemson do not feel that way and that is why the ACC would not WVU, the ACC already has to malcontents.

Who would be a good culture match because I think the ACC is going to look at culture before sports, which I think is a bit messed up since the only purpose for a conference is football. Lots of smoke is made over academics, geography, basketball and other angles, but a conference is set up for football alone.

The ACC does not want to do anything more than be at 16.

Let Notre Dame dangle in all sports except football. Drop the Notre Dame requirement to play X number of ACC teams and do not consider those games that do get set up as a conference game. So, in all sports - sans football - the ACC has 17 teams.

So, the ACC needs someone that fits in, meaning the mind their manners in the House of Tobacco Road first and foremost. Does not detract in some way on the field in either football or basketball. They are not required to be good in either sport, just not embarrassing. Finally, they have to be close by. When you make less money, travel is a bigger percentage of the budget and the ACC already has issues getting fans to go to home games much less hundreds of miles away.

This set of requirements eliminates most of the usual suspects:

WVU - lack of a cultural fit
UConn - horrible in football and has cut many Olympic sports
ECU - They could be perfect at everything and the ACC would say NO
UCF/USF - I put these together because the ACC has 2 Florida schools and will not need another one for any reason

So, who do I think I would invite in?

Army and Navy.- easy and obvious choice to me.

Their cultural difference is accepted by the ACC. Any differences that crop up are forgiven because they are military academies. They bring a rivalry. Brings in two Notre Dame games automatically. They are inside the ACC footprint.

They do not have to be good, they just have to be better than the bottom teams in the ACC and I think they are.