The Atlantic Coast Conference, a collegiate sports alliance with membership rooted only in the Eastern Time Zone, will expand west next fall, adding to University of California, Stanford and Dallas’ Soutside methodist University in its league, officials said Friday.
Cal and Stanford are the ninth and 10th Pacific-12 Conference institutions to announce their departure from the century-old league, leaving only Oregon State and Washington State in limbo for 2024-25 sports. and academic year.
SMU currently plays in the American Athletic Conference, based in Irving, Texas, and regularly competes with teams in the Southeast and Carolinas.
“This is an important day for the ACC as we welcome Cal, SMU and Stanford to this unique conference,” said University of Virginia President and ACC board member James E. Ryan said in a statement. “This expansion will enhance and strengthen the league now and in the future.”
Friday’s announcement is the latest domino to fall in a stunning shift in college sports with schools ditching long-standing, local alliances to pursue bigger ones. TV money in distant leagues.
USC and UCLA shocked the college sports world last summer when the Los Angeles schools announced they would join the Midwest-centric Big Ten in 2024-25.
Oregon and Washington followed, bolting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. That caused Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado to leave the Big 12, a league with most of its members between Texas and Iowa.
All of the Pac-12’s flaws have forced Bay Area schools into a desperate search for entry into a major sports conference.
While the Mountain West Conference, based in Colorado Springs, would have been a good geographic fit for Cal and Stanford, the institutions of Northern California did not want to lower the size and money of TV.
Financial terms of admission to Cal, Stanford and SMU were not immediately disclosed.
But Cal said to a statement that it will “contribute back a portion of its media revenue to support and sustain the conference” and that payments “will be phased out until the 10th year, at which point it will begin to retain 100% of about media revenue.”
Cal’s lack of ACC media revenues may be at least partially made up for by UCLA, which could pay between $2 million and $10 million annually under its Big Ten terms. departure as determined by the UC Board of Regents.
The three schools compete in the ACC in all of its current sports.
Besides fellow newcomer SMU, the closest ACC cities to Cal and Stanford are South Bend, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky, both about 2,200 miles away from the Bay Area.
The league will focus on “reducing travel burdens for student-athletes,” according to Ryan, the Virginia president and ACC chair.
One potential solution to cross-country travel is for some non-profit sports to play games on neutral ground in Texas.
“The ACC is very interested in using Dallas as a place where teams can come together to have games to minimize the impact of travel on the eastern members and Cal and Stanford,” Cal Chancellor Carol Christ said.
The current 15 ACC members include Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
Notre Dame plays football as an independent but is in the ACC for other sports, such as basketball, baseball, soccer and softball.
The conference is best known for this men’s basketball skills and fierce Fights on Tobacco Road. UNC has won the NCAA Tournament six times, and Duke is a five-time champion.
Moving west is also considered an insurance policy for the ACC and its long-term survival should be one of its major football institutions, such as Clemson or Florida Stateto leave another league.