UNC Board of Trustees announces opposition to ACC expansion

As the ACC reportedly prepares to meet again to discuss the potential additions of Cal, Stanford and SMU, the Board of Trustees at North Carolina has announced its opposition to those moves. The board sent out a statement Thursday night reaffirming its stance against those additions.

In order for such a move to happen, the ACC needs 12 of 15 schools to vote yes. A meeting was previously scheduled for Monday, but it was postponed in light of a shooting on UNC’s campus. North Carolina, NC State, Florida State and Clemson all reportedly opposed the move initially, but reports indicated a potential vote could be coming if they started to change their minds.

It’s safe to say UNC won’t vote in favor of adding the three programs.

Sentiment surrounding ACC potential expansion remains divided. pic.twitter.com/XIuwWFmv2f

— David Teel (@ByDavidTeel) September 1, 2023

“The strong majority of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees opposes the proposed expansion of the Atlantic Coast Conference to include Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Methodist University,” the statement read. “Although we respect the academic excellence and the athletic programs of those institutions, 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.

“Furthermore, the economics of this newly imagined transcontinental conference do not sufficiently address the income disparity ACC members face. Without ironclad assurances that the proposed expansion serves the interest of UNC-Chapel Hill, we believe it should be voted down.”

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.

As of Tuesday, though, ESPN’s Pete Thamel indicated things likely hadn’t changed with regard to other schools’ opposition to adding Cal, Stanford and SMU. While UNC’s stance is quite clear now, the other three universities haven’t publicly spoken about their thoughts.

“Things are about where they were mid Monday afternoon when the vote was scheduled. There are still four dissenting votes from the earlier straw poll a few weeks back, and there’s no clear view… heading into Monday there wasn’t, anyway, of whether one of those four votes would flip and allow the three teams – Cal, Stanford and SMU – to enter the league,” Thamel said.

Friday just got a little more interesting for the ACC as it weighs its next move.