(09-24-2019 05:18 PM)UConnHusky Wrote:  

(09-24-2019 04:33 AM)ArQ Wrote:  Music chair has stopped. There is only one last seat to P5 to pair with Notre Dame. It is not UCF. It is either Cincinnati or UConn. Most likely Cincinnati. Many AAC fans hope that B1G raid ACC so ACC has to reload with more AAC schools will be disappointed.

I don't think that last seat in the ACC will ever get filled. That would require Notre Dame to give up football independence, and Notre Dame is never doing that as long as they are making mad bank in their current setup.

If that 16th spot were to become available, though, I agree that it goes to UConn or Cincinnati. It won't matter that Cincinnati football is better than UConn now. What will matter is how football (and to a lesser extent basketball) are both performing at each school at the time that the opening becomes available. People have short memories on who was good (or bad) when.

Timing is everything. UConn picked a bad time to be bad at football when they were outmaneuvered by a rapidly improving Louisville team that were themselves pretty bad just a few years earlier (and UConn has obviously never recovered since being left out of the P5 club). In a place like New England with no pool of quality high school football talent, you can lure it to your school from out of state and be pretty good if you are part of the P5 club (as UConn was in the Big East). However, recruiting in New England as a G5 is pretty rough going.

Basketball talent? Different ball game. We have a lot of that up in these parts, which is why we had to re-hitch our wagon to the Big East to do what we do best. If an ACC slot ever opens, being great again in basketball with a decent football team gives us a shot. Being middling in basketball in the AAC and absolutely terrible in football wasn't getting us anywhere. It is tough to recruit NYC kids in basketball as a geographical outlier in a southern conference like the AAC. It is near impossible to recruit kids in football as a G5 against southern conference mates like UCF, Houston, etc. with their local talent - those kids aren't coming up north to freeze unless it is for a P5 opportunity).

I agree - I don't #16 gets filled in the foreseeable future. However, if it were ever to be filled, it would either be A) Notre Dame or B) a team that would help convince/push Notre Dame to consider joining fully in football. IMO, I don't Cincinnati or UConn do anything to help convince Notre Dame to do that however. In addition, the Southern Football programs (Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech) and Tobacco Road (UNC, Duke, NC State and Wake Forest) would likely not want to further push the footprint further North (and with an average to sub-par football addition).

In that regard, I could only see a program like Texas satisfying each of the ACC's inner grouping's personal requirements for a 16th member, which would bring a brand new market, an elite academic institution and a strong overall athletics program (not to mention huge football program).

Now, I don't think Texas is itching to join the ACC, but I don't think there are any available members for the ACC to reach for a 16th member.