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Newsstand: Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush join Notre Dame in ACC expansion push

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka08/17/23

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Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins in South Bend. (Photo by Michael Caterina / USA TODAY NETWORK)

It’s 2023, so it makes perfect sense for Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush and Notre Dame to appear together in a sentence in total sincerity. Why not?

A week after it became common knowledge through various reports Notre Dame pushed the Atlantic Coast Conference to admit Stanford and Cal into the league, Rice did the same for Stanford, and Bush made a push for Southern Methodist according to Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated. SMU has been a part of the expansion conversation with Stanford and Cal.

Rice and Bush have both made calls to the ACC on Stanford and SMU’s behalf, per Forde.

Rice, the former U.S. Secretary of State and a Stanford professor serving as the school’s director of the Hoover Institute, and Bush, the 43rd President of the United States of America whose wife, Laura, is a graduate of SMU, do not want that conversation to disappear quietly. Bush’s presidential library is also on SMU’s campus in Dallas.

Rice does not want to see Stanford slip into the college athletics abyss with the impending dissolution of the Pac-12 as a result of conference realignment. Bush, meanwhile, would love to see the upward mobility of the university his name is attached to.

The Fighting Irish’s vested interest in the strength of the ACC despite remaining independent in football is making sure the school’s Olympic sports remain in a conference that provides adequate competition. Stanford and Cal joining an already strong league across the board in most sports would certainly bolster things on that front.

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