Cal Sports Report

ACC Close to Adding Cal, Stanford, SMU, Perhaps at Reduced Rate

It's not a done deal yet. One report suggests the ACC might consider adding Cal and Stanford for football and basketball only, but others indicate it would be all sports

Jake Curtis

In this story:

Multiple reports indicate the Atlantic Coast Conference is considerably closer to adding Cal, Stanford and SMU to its conference.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News quoted a source saying "It looks like it's happening"

Wilner's story indicated it is not a done deal and momentum for adding Cal and Stanford could still disappear.

And he added this excerpt:

Among the many unknowns: Which Olympic sports teams would compete in the ACC alongside the football and basketball programs?

Mike Silver reported that the ACC is considering adding the three schools as football and basketball members only, although other reports indicate Cal, Stanford and SMU would be added to the ACC in all sports.

The key matter may be that Cal, Stanford and SMU would accept a reduced revenue percentage (less than a full share), according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo. Here is an excerpt:

Two of the three expansion targets, Stanford, the bell-cow of the group, and Cal, are proposing to take a significantly reduced revenue distribution for multiple years, starting at about 30%. SMU is proposing to take no distribution for as many as seven years, something Yahoo Sports reported more than a week ago. Options range from adding all three, adding only Stanford and Cal, adding only SMU or adding none of them.

Also, Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic is reporting that the ACC is believed to be closer to adding Cal, Stanford and SMU than it was before, and that a final decision could be coming in a few days. She later added that the three schools would be added as ACC members in all sports.

And this from Pete Thamel of ESPN, also suggesting Cal and Stanford are very much in the picture for the ACC:

His twitter video adds some details:

The scuttlebutt (unconfirmed) is that North Carolina and North Carolina Stare have flipped their votes from being against the addition of Cal and Stanford to being for their addition to the ACC.  If true, the Bay Area schools and SMU will get an invitation to join the ACC soon, perhaps this weekend.

Silver is the only one reporting that the ACC is considering Cal and Stanford as football and basketball members only.  The others are suggesting Cal and Stanford would be added to the ACC in all sports.

What if those three schools were added as ACC members in football and basketball only?

This idea makes sense in one way, since football and basketball are the money-making sports that interest TV networks, and all this realignment is about maximizing revenue.

But in the case of Stanford and Cal, which offer more sports than nearly every other college, it presents a major problem: What happens to the other sports? Especially, baseball, soccer and softball.

A few Golden Bears' sports, such as water polo, swimming and rugby, could probably carry on since their schedules are not tightly related to a Pac-12 conference.

Men's rowing could probably continue with Washington and Stanford still available as scheduling partners since the Big Ten does not offer men's rowing.  The Big Ten does have women's rowing, though, and that might take Washington out of the picture for Cal in that sport.

Track and field could probably carry on as well, but women's volleyball would have problems.

The biggest issues surround baseball, men's and women's soccer and softball.

Stanford has one of the best baseball programs in the country, and Cal would like to be in that category as well.  But without the 11-team Pac-12 baseball conference or membership in the ACC what would they do?

The Pac-12 provided Cal and Stanford one of the best softball conferences in the country, and both made the NCAA tournament this past season.  Furthermore, softball and is close to becoming a revenue-generating sport at a lot of schools. Could Stanford and Cal put together an independent schedule that would be both attractive enough and competitive enough to warrant NCAA tournament consideration?  

The same goes for soccer, particularly women's soccer.  Stanford has one of the best women's soccer programs in the country, and Cal has a good reputation in that sport as well.  The ACC is an outstanding women's soccer conference.  North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance would certainly favor the "football-basketball only" scenario since he said he would like to see Cal and Stanford "die on the vine" rather than join the ACC.

Certainly, eliminating some sports would have to be part of the discussion for Cal and Stanford if the ACC does in fact invite Cal and Stanford to its conference as football and basketball members only.

This scenario would not be unique in the ACC since Notre Dame is a member of the ACC in almost every sport except football.  And there are a number of colleges that have some teams in one one conference and other teams in another.

It's an interesting idea.

Cover photo by Kelley L Cox, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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