ACC ADs set to meet Thursday to further discuss adding Cal, Stanford, SMU

Atlantic Coast Conference athletic directors are scheduled to meet later Thursday as the league continues to consider adding Stanford, Cal and SMU, On3 was told Thursday morning.

While a meeting between ADs will take place on Thursday, no action is expected to be voted on. A final decision on adding teams won’t come until next week — one way or the other — On3 was told.

Adding Stanford, Cal and SMU has been under consideration for some time, but as recently as last week it seemed unlikely.

Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and NC State were against the ACC expanding, while the rest of the league was on board. For those four schools, it didn’t make sense to expand to a different footprint of the United States without serious financial gain.

On3 was told that in order for votes to be reconsidered, the ACC would likely need to finalize an unequal revenue sharing model — based on performance — that would potentially benefit those schools. The ACC announced a “success incentive initiative” in May.

The ACC said in a statement at the time: “The specifics of the plan are in progress and will be solidified in the coming months. Under this initiative, the implementation of the success incentives will come solely from the performance of teams in revenue generating postseason competition. All other revenues will continue to be equally shared as currently outlined.”

Three months later, a plan has yet to be finalized. However, it could be getting close.

According to Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger, if the ACC expands by three schools, the league stands to make an additional $72 million in revenue from ESPN. Cal, Stanford and SMU would be making financial concessions to join the ACC, according to Dellenger. The ACC could then take a large portion of that money and distribute it through an incentive-based model that would reward schools that perform well in the postseason in revenue generating sports.

One school that is showing its support for specifically adding Cal and Stanford is Notre Dame. Athletics director Jack Swarbrick previously told ESPN’s Heather Dinich the two schools’ academic records are a big reason for that. He joined The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday to further make his point.

“We are where we are, and we have to try and make it work,” Swarbrick said. “I mean, we’ve been pretty vocal in the past month about, we need to find a home for Stanford and Cal. You can’t have two of the great academic institutions in the world, not have a place to play.”