A Tigernet poster with the handle of "ClemsonTigers27" has done some research on what the ACC would look like if West Virginia had been invited to join the league instead of Boston College.
In short, the league would have 1) made much more sense geographically, and 2) preserved plenty of the old rivalries. However, West Virginia isn't exactly a major TV market, hence the league's snub of the Couch Burners.
Here's the post, which I've edited for brevity and clarity:
I wish they would have replaced BC with West Virginia. ... WV and VT had a rivalry going in the Big East ... and they are closer to the other ACC schools than BC. Not to mention the ACC could be broken up into East and West instead of these random, made-up Atlantic and Coastal divisions. East and West would, obviously, be divided up geographically, and this is what the divisions would look like if you took the 6 most eastern schools and 6 most western schools:
East:
1) Miami
2) Duke
3) North Carolina State
4) North Carolina
5) Maryland
6) Virginia
West:
1) Clemson
2) FSU
3) West Virginia
4) Wake Forest
5) Virginia Tech
6) Georgia Tech
These divisions would keep the inner-division rivalries such as Duke/UNC, UMD/UVA, UNC/NCST, Clemson/FSU, WV/VT, and Clemson/GT. Having the divisions split this way wouldn't affect ANY rivalry so long as you kept the cross-division rival aspect:
Cross-Division Rivals:
East - West
1) Miami - FSU
2) Duke - Wake Forest
3) North Carolina State - Clemson
4) North Carolina - Georgia Tech
5) Maryland - WV
6) Virginia - Virginia Tech
This would keep the FSU/Miami, Clemson/NCST, UMD/WV, and UVA/VT rivalries intact while pairing other teams (without a set rival) fairly. The Duke/Wake and UNC/GT ones are a little off, traditionally, but it keeps every other possible rivalry in-tact, and both Cross-Division rivalries are pretty much on the same skill level every year, with Wake/Duke and UNC/GT.
About the only problem I can see is Wake Forest. They are small potatoes in the ACC for football, but when basketball season rolls around, I think their fans would probably want to play UNC and N.C. State more than once a year.
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting post.
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