This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.
Welcome back to the Morning Win, folks! Thank you so much for reading this morning. I appreciate you.
We told y’all this would be the last year that you recognize college football as the sport you knew. Things are about to be totally different.
Conference expansion continues to move westward with the ACC being the latest power conference to pillage teams from the dying Pac-12. After a Thursday evening phone call, the conference is set to add Stanford, Cal and Southern Methodist University to its ranks, according to reporting from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
It’s final: ACC presidents have approved expansion to add Stanford, Cal and SMU, sources tell @YahooSports, ending a month-long saga into an issue that divided the league.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 1, 2023
Should the three new invitees accept their invitations from the ACC, they’ll reportedly officially join the conference in the 2024 season.
The conference’s schools met three weeks ago to discuss potentially adding new schools to their 15-team conference, per the Associated Press, but decided not to vote on it knowing that they didn’t have the 12 necessary to move things forward. Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina and North Carolina State were reportedly the holdouts.
Obviously, something changed along the way. NC State seems to be the team that flipped with “no” votes still coming from Clemson, FSU and UNC. The question is why. The answer — like every other conference realignment story — is probably money. The conference’s teams had 72 million reasons to expand.
The ACC would reportedly squeeze an extra $72 million out of its TV deal with ESPN if it added three more teams, per On3 Sports. On top of that, those three newbies would get smaller portions of the revenue share upon entry into the conference. They’d slowly ramp up over time, sure, but in the meantime, the conference’s current powerhouses would rake in the cash.
That’s why the ACC is expanding. They don’t care if Virginia’s basketball teams have to travel coast-to-coast to play Stanford. Sacrifices must be made. Especially when the executives at the table aren’t really the ones sacrificing anything.
Meanwhile, what does the Pac-12 have left? By my count, Oregon State and Washington State are the only teams left in the conference. What are they supposed to do with that? There’s no way this conference will survive after 2023.
Sure, it’s partially the Pac-12’s own fault. Its media rights deal was catastrophic. It tried to launch its own network and failed miserably instead of partnering with an already established entity like ESPN or FS1. Now the conference is reaping what it sewed.
But let’s be clear: This absolutely stinks for college sports. For the athletes. For the fans. It stinks for everyone except for the suits we never actually see.
They get the cash and, in exchange, we lose what makes college sports special. The rivalries, good competition between conferences, the welfare of the student-athletes. All of that falls by the wayside just for some extra scratch.
It’s bad. But it’s our reality. Welcome to the new world of college sports. Hope you can enjoy it.
The lay of the land in College Sports
A lot has changed in college sports over the last few years or so. With all of this conference expansion, it’s hard to know exactly who plays where now.
So, in the spirit of trying to keep up, I’ve listed all the teams in the Power-5 (4?) conferences and where they’ll be playing. Newcomers will have the year they’re officially joining the conference in parenthesis.
- ACC: California (2024), Stanford (2024), SMU (2024), NC State, Duke, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Notre Dame.
- Pac-12: Oregon State, Washington State
- SEC: Texas (2024), Oklahoma (2024), Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Auburn, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida.
- Big Ten: Oregon (2024), UCLA (2024), Washington (2024), USC (2024), Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State,
- Big 12: BYU (2023), Cincinnati (2023), Houston (2023), UCF (2023), Arizona (2024), Arizona State (2024), Colorado (2024), Iowa State, Oklahoma, Kansas State, TCU, Texas Tech, Kansas, West Virginia, Baylor, Oklahoma State.
Ronald Acuña’s big day
Ronald Acuña has had quite the week. One day, the dude is getting swarmed by fans in the middle of a baseball game. A few days later he’s hitting historic grand slams. Oh, yeah, and getting married.
For The Win’s Cory Woodruff has more:
“In a big rivalry game between the Braves and red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers with NL playoff ramifications, Acuña hammered a beautiful home run into the Dodgers stands with the bases loaded to give the Braves a 5-1 lead in the top of the second inning.
The homer helped Acuña make history as he became the first-ever MLB player to hit 30 home runs and steal 60 bases in a single season.
What makes this historic night even more incredible is that Acuña literally got married earlier in the day to his longtime girlfriend Maria Laborde.”
Some wedding day, amirite?
Quick Hits: College Gameday is back!…Victor Wembanyama’s endless potential…and more
— College football is officially back, which means ESPN’s College Gameday is, too! Charles Curtis has you covered on where they’re taking the show for Week 1.
— Bryan Kalbrosky had a fascinating conversation with the Spurs’ Jeremy Sochan. And you’d never guess how high he is on Victor Wembanyama.
— The Raiders are somehow the hottest ticket in the NFL? I guess Vegas will do that for you. Christian D’Andrea has more.
— Our Prince Grimes had an amazing convo with both Mike Golic Sr. and Jr. about their new show, their future together and the infamous butt photo. Yes, that one. You need to read this today.
Happy Friday! Labor Day weekend is here! I hope you enjoy it. Get you some good cookout food. Be kind to one another. Let’s chat again next week.