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[QUOTE="Scooch, post: 1052968, member: 628"]
The timeline is pretty fascinating.  The Big XII had spots to fill as they lost 4 schools, and invited West Virginia in the fall of 2011.  At that moment WVU hadn't won less than 9 games the previous 6 seasons, including some big bowl wins and top 25 rankings.  Louisville, meanwhile, was just in the early part of year 2 of Strong's rebuild after the Kragthorpe debacle.

So WVU was certainly the better football program at that moment in time.  But Louisville had all of the facilities and market advantages (and the bonus of killer hoops) that ultimately made them attractive to the ACC, as well as being 400 miles closer to the Big XII footprint.

Picking WVU was a short-sighted decision (and one of the reasons I scoff when people suggest that there has been some well-crafted, master plan of conferences adding specific teams.  Most of this is of-the-moment, reactionary decision making).

But here's what's particularly interesting... had the Big XII made the smarter choice and invited Louisville, then when Maryland bolted from the ACC the most likely choice of replacements would have come from West Virginia, UConn and Cincinnati.  I really think the ACC would have gone with UConn.  The lack of well-funded facilities, insignificant market, and hoops pedigree would have been a dagger for WVU, especially since their football program would have been another year off its peak.  Cincy has the Ohio presence for recruiting, but I don't think that alone would be enough to catapult them past UConn (I mean it certainly wasn't when it came down to UConn and Louisville).  So I think UConn would have gotten in, almost by default.
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