One more twist in the college sports musical chairs, as Louisville joins the ACC, replacing Maryland, who joined with Rutgers to give the numerically-challenged Big Ten 14 teams.
Focusing on the relatively small Louisville TV market might be a mistake; this gives the ACC most of Kentucky, as the ACC becomes a home conference for the whole state. The Cardinals don't have the following of UK statewide, but this will likely make the ACC the first choice over the Big 10 for the ABC regional package, since the SEC is off on CBS.
I'm not sure if I've heard this addressed, but you're moving towards a bifurcated Big East, which combines urban Rust Belt Catholic basketball schools with secular southern football schools recruited from CUSA and elsewhere. Cincinnati and UConn are a decent fit for the Jesuit crew, but the rest are an awkward fit.
If you took what's left of the northern private schools not leaving (Providence, St Johns, Seton Hall, Villanova, Georgetown, DePaul, Marquette, Temple) you'd have a very good basketball conference with being urban faith-based schools as a common denominator.
The remainder would fit better as a football-centric, Southern-based conference; the WAC imploded after over-expanding, with most of the original ganstas moving to the Mountain West. I could see such a split happening in the Big East.
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