They would have had a conference with its five private schools, and its first several champions being BC, Wake, and GT. Come 2010, when the next round of expansion was occurring, they would have been begging VT to join for football relevancy. And what if VT had been snatched up by the SEC? ACC pride at that point would still have kept them from adding WVU or Louisville for academic reasons, and as a result Maryland bolts even earlier for the Big-10 and maybe several other ACC football schools (namely Clemson, FSU, and Miami) decide to join the Big-12.