According to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic, the Atlantic Coast Conference has decided on conference expansion: The ACC will add Stanford, Cal and SMU as the league's 16th, 17th and 18th member schools.
NEWS: The ACC presidents and chancellors have voted to add Stanford, Cal and SMU to the league, source tells @TheAthletic.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) September 1, 2023
Auerbach reported that finances were the final obstacle for ACC presidents and chancellors to address before they decided to add Stanford, Cal and SMU to the conference. According to Auerbach's sources, Standford and Cal will be partial members and receive a reduced revenue share initially. At the same time, SMU will accept no ACC media rights revenue for at least nine years. The numbers from those agreements worked well enough for ACC leaders to vote the three schools into the league at 8 a.m. ET/5 a.m. PT on Friday.
The ACC footprint will now stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific, as the league now accompanies the Big Ten as the only power conferences to feature members on the West and East Coasts. Stanford, Cal and SMU are the ACC’s first additions since Louisville became a member school in 2014.
The ACC's current additions represent one of the final power conference ripples from the events of Aug. 4, when Oregon and Washington left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten and Arizona, Arizona State and Utah left for the Big 12, all after Colorado bounced for the Big 12 on July 28. Those moves left Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Washington State to chart their futures in the decimated Pac-12.
Auerbach reported that, since Aug. 4, Stanford and Cal were hopeful to land in the ACC –even at a partial revenue share — instead of moving to a Group of 5 conference. Influential alums, such as Stanford’s Condoleezza Rice, called ACC leadership this month to nudge across the move across the finish line. Meanwhile, SMU has been along for the ride and will have a seat at the table for the next nine years until it can be eligible to receive media rights revenue.
Washington State and Oregon State are the last two schools remaining in the Pac-12, and any hope to backfill and rebuild the conference appears bleak. These two schools have received interest from both the Mountain West and the American Athletic Conference, and they will be expected to choose their new homes relatively soon.
