It’s official. After a long and torturous journey for those who have studied, planned, negotiated and possibly even flipped a coin the ACC has added the University of California – Berkeley (Cal), Southern Methodist University (SMU) and Stanford University. Twelve of fifteen voting members agreed to extend the invitation while Clemson, Florida State (a gracious comment from President Richard McCullough) and North Carolina voted against.
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In the official release from conference headquarters in Charlotte the details were few and far between however the ever abundant number of enterprising sports journalists have managed to share a tidbit or two. One of the more intriguing aspects of the agreement in regard to SMU comes from Nicole Auerbach who reports that the school will forgo ACC TV revenue for 9 years. Make note of the fact that the school has a solid financial support system already in place that will allows them to ‘do without’ from the conference.
Official
Stewart Mandel has a breakdown of revenue for Cal and Stanford. Auerbach adds the perspective of Cal in regard to finances. Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle writes about why it’s okay for Cal and Stanford fans to embrace their new conference (paywall). In a tweet Silver comments on schools that helped turn the tide leading up to the final vote.
On3’s Billy Embody who writes for On The Pony Express shares some of the reactions on the SMU side.
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What about the travel implications? In case you haven’t given enough credit to the people who brought this all together read this from Pete Thamel.
This, That And Other Things
Some thoughts and observations on Twitter/X from those covering ACC teams (and not) –
Richmond Times-Dispatch – Mike Barber
The Spectrum/Disney Flap (non-sequitur) – Matt Murschel
NCAA? What’s that? – Jon Pence
Ulterior Motives – ActionCookBook
State Will Be Lucky – Joe Giglio
What They Can Be – Manny Navarro
It’s official. Cal, SMU and Stanford are part of the ACC with sports action beginning in the fall of 2024.