The ACC looks to be picking up some of the big pieces of the Pac-12.
The conference voted to add Cal, Stanford and SMU, according to USA Today reports.
The ACC will have 18 schools and in swimming, the Virginia and NC State led conference will add the elite programs of Cal and Stanford in a conference that will now span coast to coast.
“This is a significant day for the ACC as we welcome Cal, SMU and Stanford to this incredible conference,” Virginia President James E. Ryan, chair of the ACC Board of Directors told USA Today. “This expansion will enhance and strengthen the league now and in the future. We greatly appreciate the tireless efforts of Commissioner Jim Phillips throughout this entire process, especially his focus on minimizing travel burdens for student-athletes, and we are excited about the ACC’s collective future.”
There was much that went into the decision after the Pac-12 imploded with schools leaving for several other conferences based on financial reasons.
Early reports had four schools opposed to adding the three schools, but 12 of the 15 schools needed to approve the addition via a vote, so either North Carolina, NC State, Clemson or Florida State reversed course.
An agreement on revenue distribution has paved the way for Stanford, Cal and SMU.
The future of Stanford and Cal is a bigger deal in swimming than other sports, with both being perennial powerhouses in the NCAA. Stanford’s women won three consecutive national titles from 2017 through 2019 while Cal’s men are two-time defending national champions with 13 consecutive top-two finishes at the national level. Cal’s women also won multiple national titles in the previous decade. And on the international level, nine swimmers who were current or former students at Cal or Stanford represented the U.S. in swimming at the Tokyo Olympics.
But the move, as all things in sports, was driven by money, especially the money that led other schools to leave the Pac-12 earlier this year, putting the conference in complete disarray.
Earlier reports, including ESPN and Yahoo Sports, explained that these new schools added to the conference would sign the ACC’s Grant of Rights and long-term agreement with ESPN but would not receive an equal share of television revenue. Cal and Stanford would start out getting about 30% of television revenue most ACC schools would earn while SMU would go without earning cash from media rights for seven years.
It’s expected that all three new additions would eventually become full-earning members of the league by the time the television contract reaches its conclusion.
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