College football expansion: ACC to decide on 3 new schools soon, per reports
The next phase of college football conference realignment could be decided in the next few hours as the ACC plans to meet and potentially vote on the motion to add three schools — Cal, Stanford, and SMU — as members of the league, according to multiple media reports.
Reports have connected the ACC to those three schools for the last several weeks, especially after the apparent implosion of the Pac-12 following a tidal wave of realignment moves that saw five more schools announce they will leave. Here's what you need to know about the developing story.
What's next: ACC presidents have officially scheduled a meeting for Monday night to discuss the possibility of adding the two Pac-12 schools and the AAC member to the conference, and it's widely expected that they will have a formal vote on the matter.
Where the ACC stands: ACC members carried out a straw poll in recent weeks about adding any new members with that ballot falling just one vote shy of the 75 percent threshold that would be required in a formal vote to make any additions to the conference.
- Notre Dame has a vote and is in favor of expansion, principally to maintain its historic football rivalry with Stanford
- Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, and NC State were the "no" votes in that straw poll, per insiders
What does the money look like? Experts estimate that the ACC will bring in $72 million of additional revenue by pursuing expansion, which will be distributed to members both on an equal footing and also to some through the incentive structure based on football success the league announced after the "Magnificent Seven" ordeal this offseason.
- Stanford and Cal will take around $8 million per year each, or around 30 percent of the ACC's normal distribution to start off
- SMU is willing to take no distribution at all for the first seven years, according to insiders, for the chance to join the Power Five
- Those decisions will allow the ACC to free up around $50 million per year in new money, which it hopes will appease some of its more rebellious, exit-minded members
- Florida State has said openly it may have to leave the conference if it doesn't make more money
What they're saying: People on the inside believe that the ACC will have a decision at the earliest by Monday night or at the latest by Tuesday morning.
- "Hopefully, it's finished tonight," a source told David Teel of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. "No later than in the morning."
This story is developing
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