UNC women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance clarifies comment on ACC expansion

North Carolina‘s women’s soccer coach is at least partially walking back some comments he made regarding Cal and Stanford when it comes to the ACC and conference realignment.

Anson Dorrance, in his 45th year as the women’s head coach, said Tuesday that he hopes to see Cal and Stanford “die on the vine.”

“I want to clarify my recent remarks regarding ACC expansion,” Dorrance said in his statement. “I have the utmost respect for Stanford University and the University of California, Berkely. They are outstanding institutions with dedicated leaders, committed students and world-class soccer programs and coaches.

“I don’t think conference expansion is in the best interest of Carolina and the ACC at this time, and I trust and respect the decisions that chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, director of athletics Bubba Cunningham and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips are making on behalf of Carolina and the ACC.”

Dorrance’s initial comments sparked some outrage in certain corners of the Internet, eventually leading to Wednesday’s statement.

Essentially, Dorrance had noted that he hoped Cal and Stanford have an incredibly tough time with realignment because it could provide a boon to North Carolina’s recruiting.

“We’ve built the best women’s soccer conference and there’s no way I want to share the glory of our conference with two schools that do a very good job of recruiting against us,” Dorrance told WRAL.

“So basically, I want Cal and Stanford to die on the vine. I look forward to seeing Stanford, which is a very difficult school to recruit against, I would look forward to them having it be so difficult for them to recruit the elite soccer player and then we would be in a position to obviously gain those kids and put the ACC in an even stronger position.”

Dorrance has been no stranger to high-level success at UNC, having won 21 national titles as the women’s soccer coach. That success could at least partially be threatened should Stanford join the ACC.

Stanford has won three national titles and been national runners-up twice since 2009.

But the prestigious West coast program is now stuck in limbo following the latest round of conference realignment, one of only four schools set to remain in the current Pac-12 past the 2023 season. Options for Stanford have reportedly included a jump to the ACC with Cal, but so far that move has been voted down by the ACC.

Four schools are blocking a Cal and Stanford move to the ACC, with Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and NC State all against their inclusion so far.