It's not easy at all. In the 1980s both the ACC and Big East were basketball leagues. Corrigan and Swofford led the ACC in the transition to football much better than Gavitt and Tranghese. The advantage that the ACC had was that all of the members had football programs to start with.

The reaction I get here sometimes from many when I mention adding UConn, regarded more for basketball than football, is probably what Penn State received from all of the Big East basketball schools in the 1980s since Penn State is not regarded as much at all in basketball and wasn't then. It was a mistake for the Big East, but was it a mistake for St. John's, Seton Hall and Providence? Don't know. From their perspective, they didn't want to water down basketball.

The other point I was making too was that in the 1980s, the yankee v southern thing was much more pronouced before such migration south took place out of the northeast over the 30 years since. It would have affected Joe Paterno's views I think about the ACC.
[Post edited by HOO86 at 11/03/2017 6:57PM]