As an athletics brand North Carolina is probably #2 behind only FSU. And although Duke is a huge basketball brand, how much do they really add to the best basketball conference in the country when that conference is in desperate need of football clout? Obviously the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry is the best in the sport, but does it make up for Duke's complete lack of football value? From a football perspective they are basically in the Vanderbilt tier. And those are the types of programs the XII is desperately trying to avoid right now while it is trying to rebuild its football brand and revenue. I'm sure the conference would happily take NC State along with UNC though, as NC State actually has a large regional following and excellent football attendance numbers by XII standards. In fact if UNC weren't on the table, NC State would likely be a priority for the XII.