Imagine that FSU and Clemson insisted on adding a football school and not some mamby-pamby private institution from Beantown. It's hard to imagine UNC, Duke, Wake, or even UVa voting them in, but let's imagine they were so afraid of losing Clemson and FSU that they caved. Sure, the ACC would have eaten some crow by admitting a school that would immediately be at the bottom of USNWR for the ACC, but would the media focus on that?

What about the positives: imagine if WVU took BC's slot in the Atlantic Division, and imagine the annual battles between WVU, VT, FSU, Clemson, and NC State. Heck, even the regional rivalry between Maryland and WVU would have been fun. Imagine the ACC winning more than 1 BCS game per decade.

I don't have any idea whether WVU could have moved the needle on the ACC's TV deal, but I think it would have been bigger. The question is, would sacrificing some of the ACC's academic integrity been worth it? The Big Ten did it to a smaller degree with Nebraska; a bigger prize I know.