Tag: Stanford ACC

USC-Stanford football rivalry stops after 118 years, 102 games, and golden memories

1905-2023. 118 years. There is no scheduled future game between #USC and #Stanford. We’ll see when they meet next.

The death of the Pac-12 Conference and the departure of 10 different schools mean that the games we grew up watching in the West won’t be played on a regular basis anymore.

USC-Stanford is one of those games. With the Trojans heading to the Big Ten and the Cardinal moving to the ACC next year, there is no schedule slot for these teams. They schedule nonconference games a few years in advance, and both have Notre Dame as an annual nonconference opponent. USC already has its nonconference dance card for 2024, with LSU and Utah State on the slate in addition to the Fighting Irish.

These schools might enjoy playing other teams for a few years, but the realities of long-distance travel should lead USC and Stanford to schedule a nonconference game later in this decade. For now, though, this rivalry is on pause after USC’s 56-10 win over the Cardinal on Saturday.

Let’s look back at the USC-Stanford football series with statistics, facts, historical notes, and prominent memories:

USC-Stanford game was the end of an era; the schools will travel far apart

USC and Stanford won’t meet in 2024. USC goes to the #B1G and Stanford goes to the #ACC. Who knows when they’ll meet next?

The Stanford-USC football series has a lot of history behind it. The first meeting was in 1905. The schools played regularly since 1919. From 1925 through 2019, the only three years the schools didn’t meet in football were the last three years of World War II, from 1943 through 1945. The schools met every year from 1946 through 2019 before the 2020 COVID-19 season interrupted the rivalry.

Now, after USC’s win over the Cardinal on Saturday night, the series’ future is uncertain. There won’t be a game between the schools in 2024, and no future meeting has been scheduled. These California-based schools aren’t that far apart, but Stanford will now fly to the far-away places of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

How far? Look at the numbers for the Trees, who will branch out to Boston and Miami and the other locales of their new conference next year:

Stanford and Cal in the ACC? Surely this isn’t a long-term solution for college sports

Yes, Stanford and Cal needed to join the ACC to avoid a financial hit, but if Florida State leaves the ACC, what happens then?

Stanford and Cal found their lifeboat. They got to the Good Ship ACC and were rescued. They received blankets, hot coffee, and sandwiches. They were taken care of and will survive. Truly and genuinely: Good for them. They weren’t stranded, unlike Washington State and Oregon State.

However, life in the ACC is not going to be completely stable. Florida State wants out of the ACC, and the Seminoles seem to view their situation as a matter of when, not if, they will depart the conference. What will happen then?

If Florida State does leave, that’s a big hit to the ACC football brand. Clemson might want to leave for the SEC. North Carolina could become a central Big Ten target, and Duke might join the Tar Heels. Remember: Former Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany is a North Carolina alumnus. UNC to the Big Ten is not a ridiculous scenario, certainly not in comparison to Stanford and Cal going to the ACC.

Realignment might have slowed down for now, with the only short-term question being the fate of Washington State and Oregon State. However, Florida State is likely to leave the ACC in the next several years. What happens when the Seminoles pack their bags?

People are still bewildered by Stanford and Cal going to the ACC, as you can see below. When you look at how people are processing all of these wild developments, it is clear that no one thinks this is a healthy, sensible way to arrange college sports. Surely we can all do a lot better than this:

North Carolina State changed its vote on Stanford, Cal, SMU joining the ACC

Reporting from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! reveals N.C. State changed its vote from no to yes, giving the ACC enough votes to pass the Stanford-Cal-SMU plan.

We mentioned in August that North Carolina State was holding back the Stanford-Cal-SMU expansion vote for the ACC. The conference had 11 yes votes out of 15, but that was short of the 75-percent threshold needed to approve the plan. The ACC needed 12 votes. It had to change an 11-4 vote total to a 12-3 vote total.

Reporting from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports reveals that North Carolina State was indeed the school which changed its position:

“’What does this do to the political landscape of NC State and UNC?’ asks one official working in the state.

“NC State’s football team and athletic administration arrived home after 3 a.m. Friday after playing Thursday night at UConn to open the 2023 season. Four hours later, the school casts the deciding vote.

“’It is insane,’ says one ACC athletic administrator.”

Reaction to the ACC approving the Stanford-Cal-SMU expansion plan was colorful and explosive. In a world of surprises, no one should be surprised about that particular detail:

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:

Pac-12 football’s greatest moments: Stanford slays Big Ten giants in 1971, 1972

1970 #Stanford Heisman winner Jim Plunkett took down No. 2 and unbeaten Ohio State in the 1971 Rose Bowl.

Stanford could soon be out the door to the ACC. We will have to wait to find out. However, nothing will change the reality that the Indians — as they were known in 1970 and 1971 — won the Pacific-8 Conference championship and then beat the giants of the Big Ten in the 1971 and 1972 Rose Bowls.

USC was a dynastic power in this era, but the Trojans had a brief lull in the 1970 and 1971 seasons. USC finished in the top four of the national polls in three straight seasons, from 1967 through 1969. The Trojans made the Rose Bowl in four straight seasons, from 1966 through 1969. Mike Garrett won the school’s first Heisman Trophy in 1965. O.J. Simpson followed in 1968. USC won the national title in 1967 and played Ohio State for the 1968 championship in the Granddaddy. West Coast football was dominated by USC in the late 1960s. However, the 1970 team stumbled to a 6-4-1 mark, and the 1971 team did the same.

Stanford stepped through the portal and seized the opportunity to play in Pasadena. The Indians won consecutive conference titles. In 1970, quarterback Jim Plunkett won the Heisman Trophy.

When Stanford entered the 1971 Rose Bowl, it faced No. 2 and unbeaten Ohio State at the height of its powers under legendary head coach Woody Hayes. Stanford was ranked outside the top 10. However, the Indians posted 14 fourth-quarter points to stun the Buckeyes in Pasadena, 27-17.

The next year, Stanford was able to repeat as conference champion with USC still fumbling around. This time, the Indians met Michigan and its own legendary coach, Bo Schembechler, in the Granddaddy. Michigan was ranked No. 4, and Stanford was again ranked outside the top 10 heading into the game.

It didn’t matter. Stanford prevailed 13-12 in a wild sequence of events late in regulation. Michigan took a 12-10 lead on a very controversial safety with just over three minutes left. Forward progress should have been ruled on the play and Stanford should have had the ball on its own 3-yard line. The Indians were in huge trouble, but they got a defensive stop after the free kick. They drove three-fourths of the field and were able to kick a 31-yard field goal for the win with 12 seconds remaining.

The Pac-8 regularly won the Rose Bowl in the 1960s and 1970s, but most of the time it was USC doing the winning. The 1971 and 1972 Rose Bowls showed the non-USC programs in the West could hold their own against Ohio State and Michigan.

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Former Fox Sports executive explains how Pac-12 miscalculated and killed itself

The executive noted that the $ ESPN and Fox are paying to relocated #Pac12 schools is more than the $30M per school the Pac turned down in 2022.

Bob Thompson is a former Fox Sports television executive. He is a voice of experience in television negotiations, particularly in college sports media rights battles such as the recent Pac-12 theater of the absurd that wound up killing the conference.

When the Pac-12 rejected ESPN’s 2022 deal, it ignored Thompson’s specific advise and expertise. Thompson had estimated the value of a Pac-12 package without USC and UCLA at $30 million per school per year. That dollar figure is what the Pac-12 rejected last year in the hope of a $50 million moonshot. If the Pac-12 had taken ESPN’s deal, it would be alive and stable today.

Thompson cited that $30 million per school figure in an illuminating set of social media posts. Let’s share that thread and offer a few other notes from fans in ACC markets who are thinking about whether inviting Stanford and Cal is a good idea:

Florida State fan describes Stanford and Cal to ACC as ‘frozen leftovers’

The term is a clever reference to ACC negotiations having been frozen, but now resuming, in pursuit of Stanford and Cal.

If you ask ACC fans about the idea of adding Stanford and Cal, some of them might accept the reality that more television money is necessary. If you ask those ACC fans from schools other than Florida State or Clemson, they will probably concede the point that the ACC needs to add Stanford and Cal as insurance against FSU and Clemson eventually leaving the conference. Most ACC observers think Florida State and Clemson will leave. It’s a matter of when, not if.

The practical dimensions of the ACC adding Stanford and Cal — which has picked up considerable momentum over the past 36 hours — are conceded by people who live and work in the ACC footprint and its media markets. However, no one in the ACC is doing cartwheels over this. It’s not exciting. It isn’t a huge boost to the conference’s football and basketball brands. It is seen mostly as an act of survival — necessary, perhaps, but ridiculous.

Florida State fans led the chorus in noting the absurdity of Stanford and Cal potentially joining the ACC. One fan called the two Pac-4 refugees “frozen leftovers.” Let’s see how others reacted to this latest realignment plot twist:

Everyone is speculating about Stanford’s position and ACC realignment drama

What will the ACC do? Where will Stanford go? What are the politics behind these decisions? @IanHest produced the show.

The Stanford Cardinal have a lot to think about. The ACC is about to make a choice which will affect where Stanford goes in the newest wave of conference realignment. Where Stanford goes will have an effect on what happens to Oregon State and Washington State.

There’s a lot to sort out here, and that’s why we’re talking realignment on the new Trojans Wired podcast.

We recently wrote about what Stanford could potentially do if it wanted to change the numbers of the ACC’s vote to approve the proposal for Stanford and California to join the conference. If Stanford really does want a Power Five conference home, the Cardinal have to make a push for it.

Ian Hest, who produced the show, is an alumnus of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Ian has studied and followed the ACC over the past few decades. He brings a lot of insights into this discussion from an ACC perspective. It’s a detail-rich conversation on realignment you won’t want to miss on the new Trojans Wired podcast:

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