Report: ACC to "vet and have exploratory discussions" to add Cal and Stanford

Cal and Stanford are two of the four remaining schools in the Pac-12

Conference realignment talks have dominated the college athletics landscape for the past couple of weeks since Colorado decided it was going to be leaving the Pac-12 and rejoining the Big 12. Since then, Oregon and Washington are headed to the Big Ten, while Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah are following Colorado to the Big 12. Today, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that the ACC is going to "vet and have exploratory discussions" to add Cal and Stanford to the conference. One call will be for the Presidents and Chancellors of each University and the other is for the athletic directors. Thamel also added that the situation is fluid and for the four schools remaining in the Pac-12 and a "myriad of options" are being discussed with this being one of them.

Sources: In the next 24 hours, there’s two calls for the ACC to vet and have early exploratory discussions on the potential addition of Cal and Stanford. One is for ACC athletic directors and the other for the league's presidents and chancellors.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 7, 2023

If things got as far as adding both schools, then the ACC would be at 16 teams. 

The ACC has been in the headlines for conference realignment since Florida State held a board of trustees meeting last week and openly discussed their unhappiness with their current situation in the ACC. 

Florida State President Richard McCullough made it seem like Florida State is looking for a way out of the ACC:

"FSU helps to drive value and will drive value for any partner, but we have spent a year trying to understand how we might fix the issue. There are no easy fixes to this challenge, but a group of us have spent literally a year. We've explored every possible option that you can imagine. The issue at hand is what can we do to allow ourselves to be competitive in football and get what I think is the revenue we deserve?"

"This continues to be a very difficult issue. There's a lot going on in the world of conference realignment. My current assessment of the situation after very deep analysis is I believe FSU will have to at some point consider very seriously leaving the ACC unless there were a radical change to the revenue distribution."

Will the ACC add more schools?  / Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports

The future of the ACC had been in doubt recently and it largely has to do with the conference and the growing revenue gap between them and the SEC and Big Ten. The grant of rights is a huge obstacle for any school looking to leave the conference and this paragraph from an article by Nicole Auerbach at The Athletic on ACC realignment sums it all up nicely:

"ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has acknowledged the league’s position relative to the SEC and the Big Ten and has hired outside help to find new revenue streams for a conference locked in to its media rights deal through 2036. What it would cost to try to get out of the ACC before that time is unclear; the exit fee alone is $120 million and there is also the issue of breaking the ACC’s grant of rights, which has not been challenged to date and is presumed to be airtight by most."

Would the additions of Cal and Stanford be enough to keep the ACC together and would it change things with the revenue gap that is going to continue to grow? I am not sure and it seems like a long shot, but it would give the conference a presence in the state of California, which could benefit the ACC network. Both schools have not been competitive when it comes to football in recent years, but Stanford does excel at many other non-revenue sports. 

Keep your eye out for what happens next in the ACC as there is sure to be more news coming. 

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