The ACC saved the GTAA’s butt back around 1978.
I'm not sure I would phrase it this way.
GT, after leaving the SEC, still played a mostly SEC schedule ... arguably the most difficult SEC schedule in the country with annual games against Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. The problem was, those annual home-and-homes were reaching their conclusions and Tech was having difficulty finding opponents to play. Scheduling was becoming a real problem. Yes, Tech applied to rejoin the SEC and yes, Jawja blackballed Tech (I'm not sure about Auburn, that's a new one) ... but Tech begged the ACC to let them join and even paid to join the conference.
Said Curry, "I don't know if the ACC is the best conference for us, but it's the best conference for us right now. New relationships, new rivalries will form." I was there and I don't recall a lot of excitement about joining other than ... whew!
The ACC definitely eased schedule difficulty. And that was important given the dire state of the finances at GTAA. But as Oriental said, "it was a basketball conference then" of eight teams. It has gotten, much much better since then. But it was the best we could do at the time.