ACC expansion

ACC announces 15 teams will make men’s and women’s basketball tournament despite expansion

The ACC announced on Wednesday that the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will remain at 15 teams, despite the conference expanding to 18 teams.

The ACC announced on Wednesday that only 15 teams will play in the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments despite the conference’s expansion to 18 teams, starting in 2024-25.

The resolution came during the conference’s annual winter meetings, according to a release from the conference.

The ACC reiterated in the announcement that each team’s conference schedule will remain at 20 games for men and 18 for women.

The ACC is adding California, Stanford, and SMU next season to the conference’s current 15 teams.

The current format of the ACC basketball tournament gives the top four seeds a double-bye and the next five seeds a first-round bye, with the final six seeds playing in the opening round.

The ACC also announces only 15 teams will play in its men's and women's basketball tournaments, beginning in 2024-25.

Men will stay with 20 conference games, women stay with 18.

Another conference making cutoff points amid expansion.

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) February 14, 2024

The conference also recently announced that Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina, will be the next two host cities for the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament.

Dabo Swinney dishes on ACC expansion

Dabo Swinney shared his thoughts on the ACC’s latest expansion.

The ACC will never be the same as the conference has officially announced the additions of Stanford, Cal, and SMU in 2024-25.

After weeks of speculation and discussions, NC State was the deciding vote, flipping from no to yes, allowing the addition of these three programs into the conference. Clemson, Florida State, and North Carolina stuck with their votes of no, but in the end, they were outvoted.

Dabo Swinney met with the media shortly after the decisions and gave his honest opinions on what is happening in the ACC.

“I just focus on what I control. I don’t control any of that stuff, I don’t get distracted by any of that. So I think, not surprised is my reaction,” Swinney said. “Nothing really surprises me anymore when it comes to college football and those are certainly three really good institutions for sure. I guess my biggest reaction would be hey, last time we went to Dallas then to Bay Area, California? Brings back great memories for the Tigers.”

Nothing surprises Swinney anymore; it makes sense. You can only say so much about a topic at some point. We know how Swinney has felt about the changes in college football, and rather than further harp on these things, Swinney is looking at the brighter side of things.

Clemson’s and the ACC’s future is still up in the air, as we have no idea whether this will keep the conference intact. There is still a chance FSU leads a charge out of the conference, but we can only guess what will happen next.

ACC expansion: Ranking the three teams joining the conference by value

We ranked the three teams joining the Atlantic Coast Conference with expansion based on value.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is moving forward with expansion, voting to invite SMU, Cal, and Stanford to the conference on Friday morning.

After four programs voted against it, leaving them one vote shy, N.C. State flipped on Friday morning and the vote has now passed. So now what?

The move won’t take place until the 2024-25 academic year, giving the current ACC one more year in its current form. With the additions, the conference now has 18 schools with 17 of those participating in football with every school participating in basketball.

It also means more revenue for the ACC moving forward.

There are a lot of questions still left to be answered and some uncertainty with programs like Florida State, Clemson, and even North Carolina, which all voted against expansion. That will settle itself out over the next few years but expansion will continue to be a hot topic moving forward.

So what do these programs bring to the ACC? We decided to rank the three additions based on overall value using factors such as basketball, football and revenue.

Let’s dive in.

REPORT: ACC Leadership to Meet Monday Night About Expansion

ACC presidents have scheduled a call Monday night to discuss & possibly vote on adding Cal, Stanford & SMU

According to Yahoo Sports, ACC presidents have a call scheduled for Monday evening to talk about the possibility of adding Cal, Stanford, and SMU to their conference.

For the expansion proposal to pass, the league requires the support of 12 out of 15 members.

Recently, Commissioner Jim Phillips has been actively promoting a proposal that has received support from officials at Notre Dame, both publicly and privately.

During meetings with athletic directors and university presidents last week, Phillips presented new financial models to support the proposal further.

Stanford and Cal are willing to give up a significant portion of their revenue distribution for several years to join the conference. Starting with a 30% distribution, this amounts to approximately $8 million for each school.

SMU is considering preceding distribution for 7-9 years. Negotiations are ongoing, but this move would result in over $50 million in new revenue from ESPN, a significant boost for the struggling conference.

The ACC’s deal with ESPN has a pro-rata clause that increases the deal’s worth by one Tier 1 share for every new member added, estimated to be worth $24 million.

Adding Stanford and Cal and deducting their expenses means ACC schools can expect a yearly gain of over $30 million.

A decision needs to be made urgently as the CFP commissioners are expected to meet in Dallas on Wednesday to discuss potential changes to the playoff expansion format and revenue distribution model.

SMU could join Stanford and Cal in the ACC, which would make the Pac-12 look even worse

#SMU was very interested in the #Pac12, much like San Diego State. Again: Why didn’t the Pac-12 bring these schools in? Crazytown.

The Pac-12 began courting SMU in February. George Kliavkoff went to an SMU basketball game and was seen talking in a suite or luxury box to SMU power brokers.

One of the especially exasperating aspects of the Pac-12’s failure is it played out over a full year, 12 months between USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten in the early summer of 2022 and — at the other end — the mass exodus that destroyed the conference in early August 2023.

The Pac-12 had a great deal of time to land the plane, but it couldn’t. One decision at the center of all this was the conference’s refusal to bring new schools in, out of the misguided belief that it had to do the media deal first and then deal with expansion.

The Big 12 didn’t do that. The Big 12 added schools first and then finalized its media deal.

We can see which conference made out better in the long run.

On Tuesday, new reports emerged that the ACC is considering inviting SMU in addition to Stanford and Cal. The ACC might just invite the Bay Area schools, but SMU could also be included.

Seeing SMU become the focus of another Power Five conference only reinforces the magnitude of the Pac-12’s failure to bring in the Mustangs — alongside San Diego State — in late June, when Colorado was still in the conference and the addition of new schools would have boosted a media rights price point.

Here’s reaction on social media to the new reports connecting SMU and the ACC:

College Sports Roundup: The latest on the Pac-12, USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, and more from the College Sports Wires

The options for the Pac-12’s remaining teams come to light, the 2023 preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll was released, and more from the College Wires.

The potential options for the Pac-12’s four remaining teams, aptly nicknamed the “Pac-4,” continue to form.

On Monday afternoon, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported on one of those potential options. In his report, Thamel said on X, (formerly known as Twitter, ) “In the next 24 hours, there are two calls for the ACC to vet and have early exploratory discussions on the potential addition of Cal and Stanford. One is for ACC athletic directors and the other for the league’s presidents and chancellors.” He also noted that it is a “fluid landscape for the four leftover Pac-12 schools” and that many options are being discussed.

247Sports’ Brandon Marcello had a similar report on X on Monday evening but added an important note that the ACC is primarily looking at Cal and Stanford.

If Cal and Stanford were to join the ACC, there would have to be quite a few issues to work out for both universities, similar to those that the Big Ten had to consider when first adding USC and UCLA last year, such as travel expenses, especially for non-revenue sports. Cal and Stanford would also likely need to be willing to take a reduced share of the ACC’s revenue sharing, according to Pete Thamel’s full report on ESPN.

As Thamel also noted, while the additions of Cal and Stanford would not offer any significant financial gain for the ACC, it would supply the conference with two more highly prestigious academic institutions. Both schools would fit well with institutions like Boston College, Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest.

If Cal and Stanford did join the ACC, it would leave just Oregon State and Washington State in the Pac-12. There were no further reports regarding the future of either university and its conference affiliation. The Mountain West, however, appears to be the most likely option for both universities following a report from The Athletic’s Max Olson on Sunday, which stated the Big 12 was “not discussing adding Oregon State or San Diego State at this time.”

College Conference Expansion, Realignment Scenarios. What Each League Should Do, What Will Happen?

Really? You want to make sense of all the expansion and realignment in college sports?

Good luck with that.

Even the most connected of college football insiders are trying to put together the shredded papers to create a clear picture as all the rumors, reports, and tidbits fly around. So read this at your own risk – there’s a solid chance this all blows up five minutes from now.

I’m prepared for everything below to soon look totally ridiculous because nothing appears to be off the table.

The Big 12 getting Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF was obvious, but seriously, Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC? Last summer that seemed insane, and then it hit like a ton of bricks. That was nothing compared to the failure of imagination – and the shock – of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.

And how about the Sun Belt being the most proactive league of the bunch with Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss being snagged from Conference USA?

So be warned, while everything below is rooted in reality to some extent … nah. It’s all changing by the moment.

With all that said, what’s going on in realignment? What are the best and worst case scenarios for all the conference expansion options, what’s a crazy idea that might work for each one, and what’s about to happen – maybe?

Let’s do this.

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– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

What’s Going On? Nothing at the moment, but the rumors are flying. The SEC is supposedly interested, and the Big Ten isn’t saying anything – but would LOVE North Carolina. Even so, everything appears to be fine … for now.

Best Case Scenario: The ACC vastly improves its long-term media deal, ends its friends with benefits relationship with Notre Dame and puts a ring on it, and gives some thought to West Virginia joining the fun.

Worst Case Scenario: ESPN – or some crafty lawyer – figures out how to blow up the horrible grant of rights deal that locks the schools into their football media deal until 2036, and the SEC and Big Ten have have an epic battle to see who can get North Carolina, and Clemson, Florida State, and Miami.

– 10 Most Attractive Group of Five School for Expansion

Crazy Idea That Won’t Work, But … READ … THE … ROOM. What did the Big Ten just do? It raided the Pac-12 to go coast-to-coast with its footprint. Who might be out there right now for the taking? Cal and Stanford.

Again, it’s crazy, but academically those two are rock stars, they make it very, very attractive for Notre Dame to join the fun, and even though college football interest is, well, fickle in the Bay Area, it’s still a monster market to totally own.

What Will Probably Happen: The ACC will stay in place as is, but that won’t keep everyone from trying to figure out how to steal the star schools.

It’ll be in discussions with the Big 12 and Pac-12 to try forming an alliance to combat the Big Ten and SEC menaces. In the meantime, it’ll look to improve the current media deal and won’t just sit by and wait for the inevitable defections from schools desperate to leave for more revenue.

American Athletic Conference Expansion NEXT

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ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Alliance Is Here, But What Is It? College Football Daily Cavalcade

College Football Daily Cavalcade: The ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 alliance is officially a thing. So now what?

College Football Daily Cavalcade: The ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 alliance is officially a thing. So now what?

College Football Daily Cavalcade: ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Alliance. What Is It?

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Sorry if this take sucks, it’s not my fault …

Like the alliance of the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12, there’s not much to it.

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Basically, three major college conferences just agreed to be besties

And now it’s here.

The college sports world officially – well, sort of – has the alliance of the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 to combine forces for good against the evil that is the SEC.

Actually, it’s “a collaborative approach surrounding the future evolution of college athletics and scheduling.”

Or something like that.

A whole lot of words are being written and said to keep this all as murky and vague as possible, but here’s what’s actually happening.

1. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These are conferences loaded with great academic institutions, and of course everyone cares about social issues, and the future of college athletics, and the pandemic, and the educational goals, and the …

2. Whatever. It’s totally about an SEC that’s living rent-free in the heads of these three conferences. The alliance types are saying it’s not, but this is all about making the SEC pay for its expansion insolence. And that means …

3. This is all just a big fancy way of these three conferences atomic-dunking on the SEC as it came very, very close to figuring out how to get half of its league into a bigger College Football Playoff.

The expansion idea was all but a done deal, but the alliance just put the kibosh on that after the SEC expanded before the bigger CFP went through, not after.

That doesn’t mean the playoff won’t expand, but there’s no way, no how, no chance that the alliance will allow a system to be in place that lets the SEC get more than a few teams in.

– ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Alliance: Media Market Advantage

4. No one signed anything. They’re doing this non-binding alliance on a virtual fist-bump with the expectation of good will among the conferences. But as we all learned from – totally obscure movie reference alert – 24 Hour Party People, if you don’t have something officially signed, you risk losing the Happy Mondays. Case in point …

5. There’s nothing there to prevent the conferences from pitching woo to the schools of the other alliance members. Don’t think for a second that the Big Ten isn’t interested in making a whopper of an offer to North Carolina the second it figures out how to do it.

6. They haven’t exactly figured out a schedule to play each other. It’ll come, but all the power conferences have non-conference deals locked in for the next bazillion seasons, so figure they all get around to playing each other in football by 2037ish or so.

7. Revenue sharing? Uhhhhhhh, we’ll get back to you on that.

8. And the Big 12? Bless your heart. Yeah, one of these alliance conferences might go and grab a Kansas or something, but the Remaining 8 hasn’t been invited to the pizza party. And finally …

9. Of course this a football thing, but this will be a big deal for the other sports, too. Again, all that matters overall is how these three conferences keep the SEC from taking over the world. In reality, this will be a blast for basketball along with many of the non-revenue sports.

And in the end, alliance, schmaliance … the SEC still has Texas and Oklahoma.

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– CFN 2021 Preview of all 130 teams

ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Alliance. The Media Market Advantage: College Football Daily Cavalcade

College Football Daily Cavalcade: What’s the big chip an ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 alliance could play to beat the SEC? Media Markets.

College Football Daily Cavalcade: With the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 alliance, what’s the big chip it could play to beat the SEC? Media markets.

College Football Daily Cavalcade: ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Alliance

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Sorry if this take sucks, it’s not my fault …

It should be Alliance, capitalized, and not The Alliance. To paraphrase JT, just Alliance. It’s cleaner.

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This is where I’d compare this to the pro wrestling business, but I don’t know my WWWs from my WWEs.

Just how far are you willing to go with this, ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 alliance?

The alliance is coming together to combat the SEC’s master plan of world sports domination, create a more attractive option for the big media deals down the road, and to fight for better terms in the College Football Playoff expansion talks. That’s fine, but why stop there?

If you’re doing this – and I mean really doing this, and not just coming up with something to do after getting power-dunked on by the SEC …

Why not float the trial balloon threat that you might create a true super-conference? And why would you do that?

The Big Ten doesn’t have a whole lot of Big Ten-level expansion options.

Kansas would be easy, but that’s not like getting Texas and/or Oklahoma. Notre Dame isn’t happening, the ACC schools are locked into their media deal, and the Big Ten isn’t going to make a play for Pac-12 schools because … it’s not going to make a play for Pac-12 schools.

The Pac-12’s expansion options also include Kansas, to go along with Mountain West schools like San Diego State and Nevada, but that’s hardly going to get more than a yawn out of the SEC.

The ACC’s expansion options are simple – don’t lose Clemson and Florida State to the SEC.

– Week 1 College Football Expert Picks

But even with the expansion options a bit limited – remembering that this is about business and not the product on the fields and courts – the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 alliance has one massive advantage over the SEC.

The biggest of the big media markets.

No, it’s not just about TV going forward – streaming, paywall services, and in-house networks are the play – but the alliance could make itself a whole lot bigger than an expanded SEC. That’s not to say the SEC wouldn’t be just fine, but if it wants the gargantuan coin to make it worth everyone’s while, it needs the rest of America to care, and it probably won’t if the alliance schools aren’t involved.

Why did the Big Ten want Rutgers? It’s wasn’t about getting Scarlet Knight fans. It was about getting easy clearance for all the Big Ten alumni living in New York and New Jersey who’ll watch Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, etc., and it worked out very, very well for the Big Ten Network. The same went for getting Maryland and expanding the footprint by pushing into the Baltimore/Washington DC area.

The ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 alliance would have New York (the No. 1 media market), Los Angeles (2), Chicago (3), Philadelphia (4), San Francisco/Oakland (6), Washington DC (9), Boston (10), Phoenix (11), Seattle (12), Minneapolis (14), Detroit (15), and Denver (16).

The SEC would have Dallas (5), (outside of the pocket of Georgia Tech fans) Atlanta (7), Houston (8), and (sort of) Tampa (13), but it wouldn’t have 12 of the top 16 media markets, and that’s a problem.

It gets even tougher for the SEC. Keep on going, and the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 alliance would all but own 23 of the top 30 media markets, and St. Louis (23) has a Big Ten contingent even with Missouri in the SEC.

– CFN Preseason Rankings, Schedules, Projected Records For All 130 Teams

Of course everyone all over the country would watch Alabama vs. LSU, Oklahoma vs. Florida, Texas vs. Texas A&M, and the biggest SEC games, but it’s not making Ole Miss vs. Arkansas appointment TV. Don’t discount just how much the rest of the country doesn’t care about the average SEC game – and vice versa.

Does San Francisco give a flip about college football? Not really. Are most of the major markets into pro sports more than college? Absolutely. But the numbers of those combined alliance markets are still too massive to ignore – the percentage of people in them who live and die for college sports like they do in SEC markets might not be great, but the raw numbers will be there.

So as this goes forward, alliance, why not create the nuclear deterrent of a 40+ school conference – let’s assume a further expansion to get San Diego State, Kansas, maybe Oklahoma State, maybe Iowa State, and in a perfect world, Notre Dame – that more than doubles the size of the expanded SEC and obliterates the media market share?

Threaten that, and business-wise it would just mean a whole lot more for the alliance.

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– CFN 2021 Preview of all 130 teams

ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Alliance, and What It All Means: College Football Daily Cavalcade

College Football Daily Cavalcade: The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 will form an alliance of conferences. So now what?

College Football Daily Cavalcade: The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 will form an alliance. So now what?

College Football Daily Cavalcade: ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Alliance, and What It All Means

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Sorry if this take sucks, it’s not my fault …

It’s not strong enough to be a part of any alliance.

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Keep your friends close and the other conferences closer.

The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 are going to form an alliance of some sort.

No, it’s not the creation of a super-conference … yet.

Yes, this is a friends with benefits concept that should help stabilize the college athletic world against the advancing SEC menace.

No, this doesn’t mean it’s the end of the Big 12 … yet.

Yes, it’s probably end of the Big 12, at least as a Power Five conference.

No, this doesn’t mean it’s the end of the NCAA … yet.

Yes, it’s probably the end of the NCAA, at least in its current role and function.

No, this isn’t about ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 carving up the Big 12, because …

Yes, the Big Ten could go get any remaining Big 12 school it wanted at anytime.

And yes, the Big Ten might simply be buying time before its lawyers figure out how to steal away some of the ACC’s stronger schools.

Let’s just cut to the chase.

It’s in the best interests of the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 to create a way to make their own media deal that combats ESPN, the SEC, the SEC Network, the College Football Playoff, and how all of those things are tied together, even though ESPN owns the ACC Network, too.

A Power 3 Alliance could come up with something even stronger.

In the very near future, the idea of major sports network TV deals – and the ad revenue that comes with them – will go the way of the dial-up modem.

It’s the real gag with those Progressive commercials that try to prevent you from becoming your parents. If you’re actually watching that ad – or any TV ad – you’re your parents.

It’s going to be all about streaming, and while ESPN+ is terrific, the other conferences are going to want Hulu, and Amazon, and all the other options out there ready to WAY overbid to get exclusive college football rights that live behind a subscriber paywall.

(BTW, as you’re shaking your fist at the idea, do you know how much of your cable/satellite/YouTubeTV bill pays for ESPN?)

And then there’s the more urgent reason for the alliance.

The College Football Playoff. The move of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC brought the expansion momentum to a screeching halt.

The last thing the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 want is to be a part of a 12-team tournament that’s half full of SEC schools.

The all-but-done-deal plan floating around this summer was a playoff with the six top-ranked conference champions and six other highest-ranked at-large teams. Take a look at where Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Georgia are in the preseason rankings – and with Florida, LSU and Texas not all that terribly far behind – and it’s not that hard to figure out who wins in a 12-team expansion.

Going forward, assume that it all starts with the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 locking arms to demand 1) equal payout of playoff money to all remaining Power Four conferences regardless of the number of teams in the CFP – which has zero chance of happening – and/or 2) a limit on the number of teams from one conference that can be in the College Football Playoff.

You want to try taking over the world, SEC? Fine, but there’s a rock-hard cap of three teams per conference allowed in the tournament.

You want to fight that, SEC? Fine, go it alone, do your regionalized thing, and see what kind of media deals you can generate with 2/3rds of the country – and most of the major media markets – not caring about your product nearly as much as you think it does.

Or the Power 3 Alliance decides to create a 40-team Super-League of Awesome and tells the SEC to choke on it.

Meanwhile, no one has to pay the players – aka, the labor – but that’s for another day.

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