Your response was "who in the hell was voluntarily making long term decisions". This wasn't a voluntary decision. It was a contractually obligated decision that the ACC allowed them to weasel their way out of with no benefit to our conference at all. So why did we grant this extension?
Ah.. so yes, “voluntary” may not be the most apropos adjective considering there was a contractual deadline.
However, “mutually agreed” likely is.
The only thing we know for certain is that the deadline moved.
As FSU fans would have us believe, maybe it moved because ESPN said, “we hate this f’ing deal, we hate this f’ing conference and we are f’ing gone!” And the ACC peed their collective pants and begged them to reconsider and gave them four more years to do so.
Maybe it happened because ESPN asked for it… maybe the ACC asked for it. Maybe the parties came to the table and said, “hey, never thought we’d see the day, but the world went off a cliff, the NCAA tournament was cancelled and most of college football played an abbreviated season in empty stadiums… wattaya say we watch to see how this shakes out?”
With all of the legal posturing being tossed around, I didn’t see record of any of the 15 member institutions objecting at the time to this “unilateral” decision by the ACC. FSU doesn’t like it in hindsight but that’s pretty irrelevant. Again, I don’t think the extension issue is nearly as big as some want to make it. What would or would not have happened three years ago has little bearing on what decision will be made next year.