Stuff like that doesn’t get out by accident. FSU, Clemson, UNC and Miami are obvious targets for major leagues if they decide to expand. UVA, VT and NC State being attached to that group is by design. Conference boundaries matter, large and growing state populations matter, fanbases that support and watch the product matter. State supported institutions matter to the state governments. We saw this in CA. UCLA is going to pay Cal up to $10M a year that it’s in the B1G. Maybe forever. State supported schools who are looking at making a move to a P2 league that could adversely affect their in state counterparts to such a large degree aren’t going to sneak by like USC and UCLA. That cat’s out of the bag. The public’s response to realignment is to take something a blowhard like Paul Finebaum says and run with it. His job is to generate interest. But school and conference administrators on the whole aren’t so capricious. (FSU might be the exception here) Hence knowing absolutely nothing about USC and UCLA to the B1G until the day it happened. And Texas/OU to the SEC the year before. And Maryland to the B1G. That’s not happening anymore because it’s become an everyday talking point because it’s so impactful. Looking back, VT and Miami to the ACC was so public, conference commissioners looking to expand started going dark due to all the contentious legal battles that occurred during the open courtship period of the ACC in 2003. But just because these announcements are so sudden doesn’t mean due diligence isn’t taking precedence. I imagine the latest SEC and B1G moves were at least a year in the making. Which all leads me to my initial point. The four NC and VA state schools would have to see the value in linking themselves together. Who wants to be USC and UCLA in the Big Ten? Or Miami in the Big Ten? Or West Virginia in the Big XII? It’s all going to crumble down at some point and leadership would be to align yourselves now with who you want to stay connected to for the future. At least it makes sense to me that way.