Tag: Stanford Cal SMU ACC

Cal is in the ACC because of Stanford, much as UCLA is in the Big Ten due to USC

The folks in Berkeley might not like Stanford, but they should be thankful the Cardinal carried them to the ACC. It’s the only reason they found safe harbor.

One of the basic lessons of college sports realignment: It pays to have a travel buddy with a lot of dollars and clout. Just ask UCLA. Go to Berkeley and ask California.

UCLA would not be in the Big Ten if USC didn’t exist and have a world-class football program. UCLA was the tag-along travel partner which got invited onto the Big Ten plane because USC had the box-office appeal Fox Sports wanted. All that extra television money offered by Fox was due to USC’s presence in college football. As good as UCLA basketball is, the Bruins don’t drive the bus. They rode USC’s coattails and got on board the Big Ten charter flight.

It’s very much the same with Cal and Stanford in the ACC. Stanford did the heavy lifting. Stanford has the massive endowment and a financial house which is fundamentally in order, unlike Cal. Stanford lobbied hard for this ACC move. Cal, its leadership and administration in disarray, was quiet and relatively impotent in this larger series of events. Stanford carried Cal to the ACC, and that’s not something anyone would reasonably dispute.

UCLA and Cal can thank USC and Stanford for giving them a new conference home in the wake of the Pac-12 splintering and dying.

Let’s look at more elements and plot points attached to the reality that Cal is going to the ACC:

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:

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:

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: