In what is now reportedly a done deal, the ACC will add three new teams in the latest seismic conference realignment.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Michael Silver, the Cal Bears, Stanford Cardinal and SMU Mustangs are finalizing deals to join the ACC in football and men’s and women’s basketball.
Multiple outlets had already reported serious talks between the ACC and the three schools. The main sticking point reportedly involved financial concessions from the prospective new members, and how those would be shared among existing conference members.
The addition of the new members also required approval by 12 of the 15 existing ACC schools, but there was a contingent of four schools (North Carolina, North Carolina State, Clemson and Florida State) said to be opposed.
No word on how other sports will be affected by the ACC realignment. There had been strong opposition among some existing schools to adding Stanford and Cal in particular. North Carolina women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance said Tuesday that the two schools had far more to gain than they would offer by joining the ACC. He worried that it would be much more difficult to recruit against the two West Coast programs.
“There’s no way I want to share the glory of our conference with two schools that could do a very good job recruiting against us,” Dorrance said (via The Messenger). “So basically I want Cal and Stanford die on the vine.”
Cal and Stanford’s departure virtually completes the disintegration of the 108-year-old Pac-12, which has lost 10 teams in recent weeks and is now down to Oregon State and Washington State.
Sports fans quickly reacted to the ACC realignment news.
https://twitter.com/bruce_straughan/status/1694483060266315942
It would’ve been semi-feasible for football alone to go to the ACC, while the other sports went to the West Coast Conference.
This on the other hand — https://t.co/43qESY9Ya9 pic.twitter.com/x2TpTLmzJk
— Kyle J. Andrews (@KyleJAndrews_) August 23, 2023
There goes my sad naive hope that the Pac could live on. https://t.co/mG1wAxcUHX
— Michelle Smith (McDonald), APR (@macsmith413) August 23, 2023
What happens to the olympic sports? Interesting
— Kenny George (@kkg63) August 23, 2023
Nothing says Atlantic coast like Northern California and Texas https://t.co/4wraNdaXuL
— Josh Mansour (@joshmansour) August 23, 2023
This is all dumb but this is the actual way to do it at least. No reason to make all the other sports travel all over the place. https://t.co/eZl247B7w6
— Matt C. Shoot (@ConfirmedShoot) August 23, 2023
[Michael Silver, San Francisco Chronicle]
