I am not defending Maryland's actions; but, I suspect that a significant part of their 'deception' was aimed at internal parties and ACC was collateral damage. I see this a lot in M&A work in the corporate world that I am in. Basically, Maryland realized how bad shape they were in financially and the ACC could not offer enough money to help. Somebody within Maryland (likely on the academic side because perception wise, the B1G is the stronger academic conference) drops a dime to the B1G, who has had an interest in the DC market for years, who then rides in a white knight carrying a lot of cash. Maryland runs the numbers and realizes the B1Gc an save their financial necks; but, they know that a move from the ACC to the B1G will raise hell with the alumni network, which would negatively impact their two big current financial backers - private donors and the state government in Annapolis. Thus, a small group hammers out the move in a black box and then once it is ready, use a shock & awe campaign to get the deal done before anyone internally can react.
That is a wholly logical and plausible take on what might've happened. It might've very well be the outcome of an internal struggle within UMD. I honestly had never even considered that scenario. It would explain a lot of the covert way things went down.
I honestly do not fault the ACC for losing Maryland. I think it was a done deal before the ACC even knew about the deal. I do fault the ACC for being very short-sighted by grabbing Louisville, a flash in the pan school with suspect long-term benefits (Strong/Bridgewater leaving, Yum Center bankruptcy, academics, etc.) and for allowing ND in as a partial member. Those two actions look very Big E'ish setting-up a member who only cares about itself (ND) and a split between football focused schools and basketball focused schools. Tat didn't work out well for the Big E.
The one major difference I see between the ACC and the former Big East is that we do not have any basketball-only schools. Everybody plays football. Certainly not at a level that the likes of FSU, Miami, Tech, and, Clemson would want, but, everybody still plays it.
I always wondered why the FB schools within the old BE didn't just split into their own league. You all would have been a fantastic league for both sports.
That said, due to markets and Austin politicians; I believe that the ACC has a stronger chance of lasting than the XII when this all shakes out to 4x 18x major conferences.