He’s not wrong - the tone/verbiage may be off…far off… but he’s not wrong.
Other than the academic prestige - what do these schools offer?
There is a reason they weren’t picked up by the Big 12/10.
The Big 12 makes much more sense…geographically.
Folks EVERYWHERE can bloviate all they want about how only football matters, and drives college realignment and TV contracts, but athletic departments do not exist with just one or two sports.
Stanford finished #1, and Cal #22, in the final 2022-2023 Directors’ Cup rankings. So what do these academic titans offer? Highly competitive athletic departments.
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Perhaps the ACC, B1G, etc. find it advantageous that two competitors for recruits, etc. could be left without a desirable conference and then be less desirable competitors for recruits (the UNC women’s soccer coach basically said that out loud).
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Bloviate - nice?
I am not bloviating. I’m just looking at the four teams that are screwed.
btw - I think it’s wrong that partners bail on them - but that’s a different issue.
hmmmmm - no.
They find it advantageous that they are adding maximum $$ to their coffers.
If what you were saying were true, they would not have picked up the schools they did.
I edited my comment above to include the word “EVERYWHERE.”
Personally, the B1G is a better fit, even before they added Oregon and Washington.
The California schools (including USC and UCLA who had already left) were not very nice to Colorado or Utah, the last adds to the Pac 12. Why would they stay? The Pac 12 network didn’t even have deals with the cable companies in the the local areas. We have B1G and the closest school is Nebraska and the ACC and I don’t even know where the closest school is.
If Cal and Stanford were added to the Big 12, then it would be the Big 18 and revenue would be split even more. Would they bring in more money?
Are you kidding - what a great word.
I love it!!
The B10 does make sense - you are right - because of UW, Oregon, UCLA and USC - I forgot that.
I was thinking the Arizona schools, Utah, Colorado.
The B10 - they need a West region of substance.
I truly hate that any schools get left behind. Teammates…as the members are…should mean something.
Edit I should add I also don’t see a significant value in Oregon. Big money program but not a big market. But I guess they needed an even #.
Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick from today’s Dan Patrick Show:
Well, it seems Jack is going to have to offer up ND football in the ACC to get Cal and Stanford in.
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Agree about the quality of the athletics, esp. at Stanford, but that’s really tangential to the main concerns of the two ACC factions. You have FSU/Clemson/UNC who believe they are underpaid relative to their actual brand value and want to split the pie fewer ways, not more ways, plus NC State who tags along in hopes that UNC will protect them in future realignment (I’m skeptical). Then you have all the rest, who see how the Pac imploded upon losing just a few top schools and want to add as many Power 5-level brands as possible to keep the league viable once the FSU/Clemson/UNC group inevitably leaves.
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Stanford is the #1 college for Olympians. Cal is #4. (yeah, Olympic college sports not on TV so few care.)
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As has been mentioned, for those who care about sports beyond football, both have legit athletic programs.
As for academics, someone at these football-first schools must care about the academic reputations of their schools. Otherwise why would football schools like Alabama work so hard trying to convince high stat kids that Alabama is a legitimate academic destination?
Who knows? Maybe being on the same field as Stanford and Cal might help convince prospective students/faculty that the football-first schools are legit, academically.
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Or maybe all go to the B1G. Lawsuits would fly! 
or, better yet, Bezos buys the BiG & CFB Playoffs for Amazon streaming.
or, Apple buys espn!
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Apple buying ESPN wouldn’t be a surprise IMHO, it seems ESPN is struggling. Wouldn’t that shake things up!!
I think the ACC is going to ultimately fall apart, although not imminently.
Separately, I really want to know if Stanford made the same offer to the Big 10 and Big 12 as their ACC offer…you know, the one where they don’t take money for X number of years. I am hoping for Stanford and Cal to go to the Big 10. WSU and OSU could make sense too…then Big 10 has a 6 member Western division.
I have it on good authority that Stanford made no such offer, just SMU.
Agree, the ACC and B12 won’t survive the next TV/streaming contract cycle. (And neither will the BiG and SEC as we know them; their stronger FB teams join a football only playoff league.)
Just published.ACC expansion: Conference renews discussions to add Stanford, California, SMU at reduced price, per reports
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Some new updates from today, doesn’t look like I can gift link articles from The Athletic. Annoying. So, until the NY TImes fixes that…
ACC brass meeting this week as conference seriously considers adding Stanford, Cal, SMU: Sources
The ACC is seriously considering adding Stanford, Cal and SMU, multiple sources briefed on the discussions said Wednesday. There have been discussions periodically over the past month. Here’s what you need to know:
- A group of ACC presidents met Wednesday morning to discuss finances, one of the sources said. Another set of presidents is expected to meet separately as a small group later this week, and there is a meeting of the league’s athletic directors expected as well.
- The ACC had a number of meetings this month to discuss expansion and sift through the financial details that could make it possible, but it has not yet conducted a formal vote amid pushback from within the league.
- The conference needs 12 of 15 member schools to vote “yes” in order to add any new members. Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina and NC State opposed the additions of Cal and Stanford when the league presidents met two weeks ago to take a straw poll.
What hurdles remain?
There are multiple financial models still under consideration, the sources said, as ESPN first reported. And that’s where the key to final approval will be. SMU is willing to join the ACC and accept no media rights revenue for seven years, and Stanford and Cal are willing to join as partial members.
Because ESPN has a pro rata clause with the ACC, the league would be paid out for full shares for each addition. If that money is pooled after paying out the partial shares to the Bay Area schools, it allows the ACC to bring in new, additional revenue that it can disperse however it chooses.
The expectation, sources said this week, is that the money would be dispersed based on performance. So, football success would drive additional revenue. This has been a sticking point among the four dissenting schools. Florida State and Clemson have been particularly vocal about falling behind their peers in the SEC and Big Ten over the next decade, believing that they need to close a gap that could stretch to $30 million on an annual basis in media rights payouts. A performance-based model for the additional revenue gained by expansion could help.
Two of the sources said they believed the ACC is closer to adding the three schools than it has been at any point this month, and that a final decision could be made by the weekend.
Backstory
Adding Stanford, Cal and SMU would stretch the ACC’s membership footprint from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The ACC would join the Big Ten as the only power conferences to include members on both the West and East Coasts.
Stanford and Cal’s options are limited after five Pac-12 schools left the league earlier this month. If the Cardinal and Bears also depart, the Pac-12 will be left with only Oregon State and Washington State.
SMU, a member of the American Athletic Conference since the league’s current version formed in 2013, has been outside a major power conference since the Southwest Conference dissolved in 1996. The Mustangs were reported to be a Pac-12 expansion target earlier this year, and in February, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff visited the school and was spotted speaking with SMU administrators during a Mustangs basketball game.
ETA: cross post with sushiritto
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