Tag: SMU ACC

Twitter reaction to Stanford, Cal and SMU joining the ACC

Stanford and Cal will play conference games vs Florida State, Miami, Clemson, Boston College, and Syracuse. Really smart, right?

Stanford and Cal-Berkeley will soon be in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Few sentences in the English language sound more absurd or ridiculous. Yet, that will be the new reality of college sports before too long.

The Trees of Palo Alto and the Bears of Berkeley will be part of a conference which includes the cities of Coral Gables, Florida; Tallahassee, Florida; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; Syracuse, New York; Pittsburgh; Clemson, South Carolina; Blacksburg, Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia; and four locales in the state of North Carolina.

Normal, rational, logical stuff, right? None of this is logical, but it was the obvious play for Stanford if we assume the Big Ten Conference simply wasn’t interested in adding the Cardinal. The rationale from the ACC side is not as readily obvious for most college sports fans, but the conference will get some more television money from ESPN with these additions. Florida State fans would respond by saying the added money is nowhere near enough for the Seminoles to be satisfied with their current position in the ACC.

Welcome to the absurdity of college sports realignment. Reaction on social media, as you can imagine, was all over the map, which is a great way of describing Stanford and Cal going to the ACC:

Stanford, Cal and SMU put Western and Southwestern flavor into Atlantic Coast Conference

What was the #Pac12 is down to the Pac-2. Oregon State and Washington State have been left in the cold.

The next big domino to fall in conference realignment was Stanford. Where would the Cardinal land after Oregon and Washington moved to the Big Ten and the Four Corners schools moved to the Big 12? The Pac-12 splintered and died, leaving behind anarchy in college sports realignment and forcing Stanford and Cal to scramble for an alternative solution.

More than a week ago, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mike Silver was first with the news that Stanford, Cal and SMU were likely headed to the ACC. Other outlets then confirmed the story.

Reaction was swift and opinionated, as you could readily imagine.

Then came Friday morning’s report from Ross Dellenger that Stanford, Cal, and SMU had been voted into the ACC. The 11-4 vote blocking the move — the ACC needed 12 votes to approve — did not hold the line. One concession was all it took.

Let’s look at some of the more salient points about the ACC’s situation, Stanford and Cal’s new reality, the SMU angle, and the unfortunate turn of events for Oregon State and Washington State, which now represent the Pac-2 and will almost certainly have to settle for some sort of arrangement with the Mountain West Conference:

Jokes and wisecracks fly as Stanford, SMU try to influence ACC expansion vote

Stanford and SMU are using high-profile public figures to sway the ACC. Jokes instantly dominated social media.

As the old saying goes, “The jokes write themselves.”

Stanford and SMU, both interested in joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, have called upon prominent power brokers in an attempt to make their case to ACC members.

We have written about the politics of Stanford’s situation relative to the ACC. We have pointed out that Stanford has a number of tools in the toolbox it can use to change the ACC’s current 11-4 vote on the Notre Dame proposal to allow Stanford and California to enter the conference. The ACC needs 12 votes to approve the move, so Stanford is one vote short.

Stanford apparently thinks that using longtime employee Condoleezza Rice, the former United States Secretary of State under President George W. Bush and a former member of the College Football Playoff selection committee, is worth a try in its attempt to influence the ACC’s member schools.

Speaking of George W. Bush: SMU has reportedly enlisted the former president to make the Mustangs’ case to the ACC.

Reaction on social media was swift … and hilarious.

Let’s get a sampling of the jokes which pretty much wrote themselves:

Why would Notre Dame vote to bring Stanford and Cal to the ACC?

Many seem confused by this, but the politics aren’t as complicated on this topic as many might think.

As of Thursday morning, it seems that the ACC’s discussions about adding Stanford and Cal are going nowhere. The ACC does not appear to have the necessary number of votes among its members to approve an invitation to the Cardinal and the Golden Bears. Yet, that’s not the full story.

It was revealed on Wednesday that Notre Dame has a vote among ACC member schools on the Stanford-and-Cal agenda item. Notre Dame is not a full member of the ACC. It is not part of the ACC in football. It plays several ACC teams each season and plays within the ACC in non-football sports, but it is not a football member of the conference. Why Notre Dame would therefore get a vote on this and other urgent ACC matters is a point of considerable debate. As you could imagine, it’s a point of frustration among other ACC members, which is probably why a vote to approve Stanford and Cal to the conference will ultimately fail. There will be enough voices at the table to insist that Notre Dame must not get its way.

One obvious question: What “is” Notre Dame’s way? What is Notre Dame’s bigger play here? What’s the ultimate purpose of wanting Stanford and Cal in the ACC from the Irish’s point of view?

The biggest reason for ND’s stance on Stanford and Cal to the ACC is this: It’s all about the College Football Playoff.

Think about it: If Stanford and Cal are pulled out of the Pac-4, it becomes that much more possible that the Pac-12 dissolves and fully ceases to exist.

What is the consequence of that scenario if it happens? A Power Five conference dies, and with it die all those revenue distributions and allocations for the playoff and the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame, as an independent, would not have to deal with an automatic playoff spot for the Pac-12 in future seasons. Stanford and Cal staying in the Pac-4 and working out an arrangement with the Mountain West in which the Pac-12 keeps its playoff spot and playoff money distributions would represent one small but real obstacle toward Notre Dame making the playoff every year. Killing off the Pac-12 in an official (logistical, bureaucratic, structural) way would significantly increase the Irish’s playoff odds.

Be sure to follow Fighting Irish Wire for complete Notre Dame coverage.

Now that you’ve gained that answer, watch how fans and pundits reacted to the news that Notre Dame actually does get a vote in the ACC. It was, as you could imagine, a firestorm:

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: