Louisville won't save the ACC

With basketball on everyone's mind, I've read and heard a lot of talking heads and experts say that Louisville  (along with Notre Dame, Pitt and Syracuse) make the ACC the premier basketball conference. Adding the defending champs is nice, but it doesn't mean much when you look at the whole picture. Being the best and deepest basketball conference is a good thing, but football still runs college athletics. 

Things have been silent lately on conference shuffling, but I hope Bates is still working on BC's backup plan. The ACC is now as vulnerable as ever. TV contract windows are coming for the Big Ten and SEC. If they feel it makes sense to go to 16, they will. Maryland is proving that debt and penalty money is not a factor. 

As much as I love the NCAA Tournament, I think its appeal just makes a power conference breakoff that much more likely. If the football factories leave the NCAA, they can create their own basketball tournament and keep all of that TV money. 

While Bates works the backrooms, he also needs to make sure our basketball and football teams get better faster. On-field performance doesn't mean anything (see Maryland, Rutgers) but we want to be as strong as we can be when thing shake out again.