ACC votes to expand three schools
The Atlantic Coast Conference has gone national. The ACC presidents voted Friday morning to expand the conference to 18 teams by adding Cal, SMU and Stanford in a vote that was not without drama.
On Thursday evening, the board of trustees at North Carolina issued a strongly-worded statement against expansion. According to Brett McMurphy of Action Network, the Heels were one of three teams that voted no to adding the three teams, joining Clemson and Florida State.
NC State was at the center of attention. Originally believed to be against expansion, the Pack could have been the swing vote in the matter. The league required 12 of 15 members to approve the move.
According to YahooSports’ Ross Dellenger, the ACC will $72 million in additional revenue from ESPN. Cal and Stanford have agreed to take 30 percent less share and SMU will receive zero television revenue share for up to nine years. That means the conference will distribute around $55 million more to current members.
However, much of that will not be distributed equally, as the league is going to invest some of that money into an incentive model weighed heavily on football success.
Dellenger also reported that in an effort to address cross-county travel, a proposal has the sports programs traveling to Stanford and Cal only once every other year.
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The move means the soon-to-be former Pac-12 will be down to two members, Oregon State and Washington State, who are expected to be relegated to a Group of Five conference, such as the Mountain West or American Athletic. Cal and Stanford’s concessions allows them to maintain Power Five status.
SMU gets its much-desired bump from a Group of Five league (American) to a Power Five conference.
The ACC may have also been motivated by a sense of urgency to maintain Power-level status. Florida State has publicly announced that their discontent towards the current status of the league, and reports have indicated that Clemson and perhaps North Carolina are also keen to challenge the Grant of Rights (GOR).
The GOR that the ACC teams have signed could potentially make leaving the conference an expensive proposition, but FSU has deemed to looming 8-figure gaps in revenue between the ACC and super conferences Big Ten and Southeastern Conference (SEC) untenable.
According to McMurphy, if the ACC falls below 15 teams, ESPN has a right to reopen the television contract that lasts till 2036. The conference is also likely betting that the moves will help the league maintains, at minimum, a level status with the Big 12 and avoid the Pac 12’s fate should FSU and Clemson make aggressive moves to leave the conference.
