Atlantic Coast Conference presidents voted Friday morning to invite three teams to the league, expanding its geographic footprint far beyond its mid-Atlantic roots and its current Eastern seaboard configuration.
Posted September 1, 2023 8:00 a.m. EDT
Updated September 1, 2023 1:07 p.m. EDT
By Brian Murphy, WRAL sports investigative reporter
The Atlantic Coast Conference voted Friday morning to invite Cal, Stanford and SMU, dramatically expanding its geographic footprint to the West Coast for a marginal increase in revenue that can be used to mollify disgruntled current members.
The additions of two schools in Northern California and one in Texas will bring the North Carolina-based league’s total membership to 18 schools, including Notre Dame, which remains a football independent.
«This will help the ACC in multiple ways,» ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told WRAL.
Presidents and chancellors at each of the 15 schools had a vote and 12 were needed to invite the schools, who come with sterling academic reputations but no sustained recent success in the all-important sports of football and men’s basketball.
All three will join for the 2024-25 academic year with SMU becoming a full member on July 1 and Stanford and Cal on August 2.
The expansion vote comes after weeks of debate and outright opposition from some corners. Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and NC State did not support expansion a few weeks ago, according to multiple reports. ESPN reported that NC State backed expansion Friday.
NC State declined to divulge how it voted.
«The NC State brand, and historical competitiveness of our programs, is already well-recognized and established,» NC State chancellor Randy Woodson said in a statement to WRAL. «The addition of these outstanding universities gives us even greater opportunities to build on the Wolfpack’s national presence, which in turn will generate more long-term benefits for our student-athletes, our athletic programs and our loyal fan base.»
Florida State president Richard McCullough said his school voted no.
«There are many complicated factors that led us to vote no,» he said.
Clemson indicated it did not support the expansion.
«We respect the conference membership’s decision,» the school said in a statement.
A meeting scheduled for earlier in the week was postponed after a deadly shooting Monday on UNC’s campus.
Legendary UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance denounced the plan. The leaders of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees sent a letter Thursday night saying a «strong majority» of the 13-member board opposes expansion.
«The travel distances for routine in-conference competitive play are too great for this arrangement to make sense for our student athletes, coaches, alumni and fans,» wrote David L. Boliek, Jr., and John P. Preyer, the chair and vice chair of the UNC-CH Board of Trustees. «Furthermore, the economics of this newly imagined transcontinental conference do not sufficiently address the income disparity ACC members face.
