BC was included due to pressure from Miami, ACC elite preference for private schools, and a desire for a northeast market that never materialized. Miami actually had little leverage as the SEC and Big Ten didn't want them.

Inviting BC had a short term payoff thanks to Matt Ryan, but is a long term failure. That is a major strategic error that we have to lay at Swofford's feet as the head of the ACC.

A visionary leader would have seen back in 2003 that twelve was not the magic number for expansion, and that ACC members' irrational preference for small private schools was not a path to long term profitability and stability.

Many on this site - myself included - argued loudly in 2003 that 14 was a better number, and that Rutgers and Pitt should be included in the ACC. now we see that position is correct. If Swofford had foreseen that inviting large, research-oriented state U's wasn't the worst thing in the world maybe the ACC could have PSU as a member, a network at an earlier date, and more conference $$$.

We'll never know, but I do know that the ACC lost a charter member in a huge TV market, and that we now share the northeast with the most powerful conference in the country. IMO that's a strategic failure that might have been avoided.


[Post edited by lawhokie at 12/18/2016 3:20PM]