California, Stanford, and SMU officially join the ACC

The long-awaited conference realignment finally became official on Monday with three new teams joining Duke in the ACC.

The Atlantic Coast Conference officially got a little bigger on Monday.

The Stanford Cardinal, the California Golden Bears, and the SMU Mustangs became members of the ACC on Monday with the 2024-25 athletic calendar kicking off in July.

The Golden Bears and the Cardinal come from the Pac-12, and the West Coast conference now only has Oregon State and Washington State left as teams fled to the Big 12 and the Big Ten. SMU joins from the American Athletic Conference, and the Mustangs won the football conference championship last season.

There are now 18 teams in the conference for the athletic calendar, although there will only be 17 teams on the football slate since Notre Dame remains independent.

The move does not come as a surprise with schedules already in place for months including the new schools. Duke will play SMU during the last weekend in October, but the Blue Devils don’t play either of the two West Coast teams this season.