Some nice analysis.
But...one point.
I think it's a mistake to believe that adding Syracuse like this provides some instant access to the NYC TV market.
Unlike Rutgers & UConn, interest in the Orange in NYC comes almost solely from alumni (a good number of whom work in local and national media).
There are a lot of alumni...enough to make a Madison Square Garden BE game something close to a Syracuse home game.
Without ties to the Big East, local NYC media interest in Syracuse all but disappears...
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Thanks, you confirmed what I suspected which is why I worded it
Cuse is as good an entry, (or not), into that NY market as Rutgers is (or is not),
In fully agree with your main point but might instead of wording the lead in as you did "Unlike Rutgers and UCONN...", I tend to think of it as "Like Rutgers and UCONN...".
I don't know as much about Rutgers, but I did live in CT for 15 years and only thought of it as halfway point between Boston and NYC, not as anything associated with the city. Storrs in particular is in the middle of nowhere, and even Hartford where I worked is not thought of as a sister city.
Even though there is a big difference between upstate NY and NYC, having a presensce in "New York" state at least subliminally gets out of state people to think of "New York" city when realistically it is mostly (up) state NY.
Rutgers is about 3.5 hours and about 200 miles closer to NYC than Syracuse is, but New Brunswick NJ is also only about 10 miles north of the midpoint between Philadelphia and NYC, not directly in one of the Boroughs.
I can't say how NY/NJ people think of Rutgers and its appeal to NYC market but as someone who as lived in Missouri, PA, MA, CT and FL, I have never associatd the two closely.
So just an opinion, mine is that anybody who thinks Rutgers captures that NYC market is a few states South of reality too.
So as an ACC fan, I gladly accept Syracuse and Pitt over Rutgers and UCONN or any other schools ACC could realistically have gotten this year for a lot of other reasons, with that one perhaps being a tie, or only a narrow edge to Rutgers/UCONN, not enough to sway it overall.
I also think it would have been a mistake in the short term and even in the intermediate term for ACC to accept all 4, before first pursueing more aggreassivley 2 other than Rutgers/UCONN in intermediate to long term