Report: ACC's pursuit of Cal and Stanford has hit "Significant roadblocks"

The ACC has considered adding Cal and Stanford to the conference

Jackson Caudell | Aug 9, 2023

Report: ACC's pursuit of Cal and Stanford has hit "Significant roadblocks" /

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The ACC's pursuit of adding Cal and Stanford to the conference may have ended tonight.

According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, the ACC presidents met tonight and the pursuit of adding Cal and Stanford to the conference has hit "significant roadblocks". Thamel also added that recent conversations about adding SMU have not gone anywhere.

Sources: ACC Presidents met tonight and the pursuit of Stanford and Cal for conference membership has “hit significant roadblocks.” There’d always been long odds because there wasn’t ever a significant value add.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 10, 2023

This news comes after an earlier report today of Notre Dame reportedly pushing hard for the conference to add both schools.

Am told Notre Dame, as a full voting member of the ACC, is pushing hard for the additions of Stanford and Cal. That "full voting member" part is ... something. Writing on this shortly.
— Larry Williams (@LarryWilliamsTI) August 9, 2023

Notre Dame, an ACC member in all sports but football, is "pushing hard" for ACC to add Stanford & Cal, @LarryWilliamsTI reports
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 9, 2023

If this is the end of the pursuit of both Cal and Stanford, it will be interesting to see where the conference goes, especially if Florida State, Clemson, and some of the other schools continue to look for ways out of the ACC. The Seminoles made news last week at their board of trustees meeting when they made it clear they are unhappy with the current arrangement.

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 expand? / Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Will the ACC continue to look to expand if they are unable to add both Cal and Stanford? It appears that the talks with SMU are not getting anywhere and the ACC could be running out of options.

Here is what AllYellowJackets writer Matthew Kistner wrote last week when discussing Georgia Tech's options in the midst of conference realignment and who the ACC could add through expansion:

"With the primary members threatening to leave on the basis of poor revenue deals, the conference could strive for adding new teams to bolster better commercial interest and thus generate more revenue. Teams such as Notre Dame, West Virginia, Tulane, South Florida, East Carolina, Liberty, Ohio, Marshall, Appalachian State, Troy, or Memphis could make good additions in a geographical sense. Perhaps the ACC could even reach out to the remaining teams of the Pac-12 (or should I say Pac-4) to establish a western presence: California, Washington State, Oregon State, and Stanford.

The western move or poaching West Virginia from the Big 12 would garner the most revenue in my opinion as it would activate a new audience in the West for ACC football that could bring companies calling for television rights. West Virginia also brings its passionate fan base and rivalry with Pittsburgh that would spark interest of all fans. Unfortunately, all of these situations are a stretch for the ACC and more likely than not will not happen. Facing reality, the ACC is in a difficult bind and I am not too optimistic on the future of the conference."

Clearly, it seems like the prospects of Cal and Stanford are fading and the conference does not have a lot of options that make sense in terms of expansion. The ACC has an uncertain future and it got even murkier with this news. Keep an eye out for more conference realignment news that is sure to come.

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