Stanford And Cal Figuring Out ACC Schedule Options For Athletes

Stanford and Cal have a big puzzle to sort out in terms of how they will schedule games with ACC foes

Following the collapse of the Pac-12, Stanford and Cal were among the four programs remaining in the conference.

Had they wanted to rebuild the conference, technically they could have but the goal for them was to end up in a Power 4 conference. While USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington ended up in the Big Ten and Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah ended up in the Big 12, it took until nearly the start of the season for Stanford and Cal to land in the ACC.

They along with SMU were able to flip just one vote as they consistently came up short by a lone vote in each of the prior pollings. Now that they are joining the conference, they have to figure out their schedules. As explained in a recent article by Jon Wilner, there are a lot of problems that will need to be figured out with solutions like chartering flights with Cal or making Dallas the neutral site for competitions.

A difficult task that Bernard Muir told Wilner is forcing him to learn as they go. 

“This stuff isn’t covered in any AD 101 class,” Bernard Muir said. “But we’re learning on the fly.” 

When it comes to football, Stanford and Cal are expected to head east three or four times per year on chartered flights, but the issues in scheduling truly reside with sports like baseball, basketball, and softball among others. However, Muir did reveal that athletes wanted to be able to remain at the highest level.

“We had talks with our student-athlete leadership group. They said three things: No. 1 was they wanted to compete at the highest level. No. 2 was what would the travel look like. And No. 3 was ‘Don’t forget about No. 1.’

It will be a costly venture, but one that Muir is confident that he can pitch as an investment to Stanford alumni.

While the ACC has some unhappy campers like Clemson plotting to leave, the contract does have a media rights deal through 2036 so it does offer Stanford plenty of time to figure out what's next so they aren't caught by surprise for the next wave.