After being left out of the NCAA realignment frenzy over the past year, the Atlantic Coast Conference has decided to get in on the action.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the presidents and chancellors of the ACC met early on Friday morning and voted to invite Cal, SMU and Stanford to the conference. If the three schools accept (and there’s every reason to believe they will), they will officially join the ACC for the 2024-25 school year.
Cal and Stanford were two of only four schools that didn’t get an invitation to join the Big Ten or Big 12 this offseason. They will represent the first West Coast teams to join the ACC since its founding in 1953.
SMU, meanwhile, has been enjoying a renaissance in sports lately after decades as an NCAA cellar-dweller. With one of the largest endowments in the conference, they’re understandably seeking greener pastures.
Our @ESPN story on the ACC voting this morning to invite Cal, Stanford and SMU, per ESPN sources. Commissioner Jim Phillips lands the plane on a move for the ACC that pushes it to 18 programs and drives hundreds of millions in revenue to the league. https://t.co/QYRHmtjGef
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 1, 2023
The impending departure of Cal and Stanford will leave Oregon State and Washington State as the only remaining Pac-12 teams. There are rumors that they are already being recruited by other conferences though and could be given an invitation elsewhere before the end of the year.
The college sports landscape is changing, but this year’s realignment might be the most impactful of our lifetimes.