At the time there were rumors of Florida State and Maryland wanting to leave the ACC. Both football & basketball were in the dumps and new TV contracts were being negotiated. The powers to be in the ACC wanting to re-establish themselves as the best basketball conference in the country and focused in on inviting Syracuse and UConn. Boston College strongly objected to UConn and the ACC then settled for Pitt.
The part about academics was completely bogus and later confirmed by Louisville joining the ACC. Markets in two large states (Pennsylvania and New York) certainly was a factor - especially if an ACC network was going to be established that was dependent on cable subscriptions at some point in the future.
The biggest problem that the ACC has is that they are overshadowed in the South by the SEC and overshadowed in the North by the B10. Things are stable now, but both the SEC and B10 covet the Virginia and North Carolina markets which will be the next targets for expansion.