On Aug. 4, hours after the Big Ten acquired Oregon and Washington and the Big 12 acquired Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, ACC presidents gathered with commissioner Jim Phillips late on that Friday night.
Many within the league thought their pursuit of expansion had ended. The conference had been seriously exploring for more than a week adding the Arizona schools, Utah, Cal and Stanford, even holding communication with the presidents of those schools.
With three of the five heading elsewhere, the book on ACC expansion was expected to be closed.
Not so fast!