ACC Adds Cal And Stanford Starting In 2024

The ACC has added Cal and Stanford, starting in 2024. They are also adding SMU. It will bring the conference to 18 members, with 17 playing football full time in the league. The additions are in all sports and will begin in the 2024-25 school year.

The moves have been the subject of much drama the past month, as commissioner Jim Phillips worked diligently to appease a group of members eager to add the schools and others seeking more revenue. Generally, votes need to be unanimous. In this case, only 12 of 15 votes were needed.

Heading into the meeting Friday morning, it was uncertain whether the league had the votes. This was a significant variance from how conference expansion typically works. In a straw poll more than three weeks ago, four ACC schools dissented: Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and NC State.

One of the four schools needed to flip for the vote to pass. It ended up being a 12-3 vote Friday with NC State flipping. The focus on NC State chancellor Randy Woodson intensified Thursday night when members of the University of North Carolina board of trustees issued a statement to voice their objection to the additions.

The ACC joins the ranks of a rapidly changing collegiate landscape. Starting next year, the Big Ten will have 18 teams and the Big 12 and SEC will have 16. The move leaves the Pac-12 with just two remaining programs, Washington State and Oregon State.

The expansion of these conferences has led to criticism that college sports has been dictated by money and greed. And it is hard to argue. The fact that Cal and Stanford, two schools on the West Coast that are right by the Pacific, are now members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, indicates that the major conferences in Division 1 college sports have nothing to do with the regions they supposedly represent.

The Pac-12 will now surely dissolve. Instead of having multiple major conferences, college sports is headed towards having a few mega-conferences. And this is all because of money. It’s what led USA and UCLA to move to the Big 10. That started the domino effect of the disintegration of the Pac-12.

Cal and Stanford will now play most of their conference games against teams from the East Coast. As the ACC ads Cal and Stanford starting in 2024, we must mourn the end of arguably the most famous conference in college sports. The Pac-12, known as “The Conference of Champions,” has died. It was 108.