Posted on 09/01/2023 7:47:29 AM PDT by NohSpinZone
The Atlantic Coast Conference has cleared the way for Stanford, California and SMU to join the league next year, two people with direct knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Friday, providing a landing spot for two more teams from the disintegrating Pac-12.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was still being prepared. The conference's university presidents and chancellors met Friday morning and voted to extend invitations to the three schools.
The additions make the ACC the latest power conference to expand its membership and footprint westward. Starting in August 2024, the league with Tobacco Road roots in North Carolina will increase its number of football schools to 17 and 18 in most other sports, with Notre Dame remaining a football independent.
Notre Dame is currently the westernmost ACC school in South Bend, Indiana, with Louisville the farthest west among football members.
But now, like the Big Ten, the ACC will be a cross-country conference. The ACC will span from Boston in the Northeast to Miami in South Florida, out to Dallas in the heart of the Southwest and up to the Northern California, where Stanford and Cal reside.
The move appears to be a marriage of desperation for the Bay Area schools, in need of a Power Five conference to call home after the Pac-12 was picked apart by the Big Ten and Big 12.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Have to ask- is Princely Umanmielen injured or was he just that awful last night?
From what I can glom, the AAU is about research grants. So rankings be damned.
Having their schools in the AAU, the Big 10 public relations office gets to pump out its collective chest while exclaiming “Look how much research we are doing. We’re going to save the world.” Although they aren’t outwardly mentioning the AAU, current Big 10 “recruiting ads” during the sporting events are pushing that narrative.
Having said that, if FSU and/or Clemson get the invite, I’ll be back here to congratulate you.
That’s exactly what is going to happen. It’ll be one giant National College Football League with regional conferences. They will put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
The whole destruction of the traditional regional conferences stinks.
They will next year; USC and UCLA
Thanks for the correction, just got transferred back from Reno after being absent for three years, ugh.
Don’t feel bad. I haven’t been paying close attention to college football either. I’ll watch games, but college football is not a year round thing for me any longer. The less I know about personalities and politics in sports the more I can enjoy watching games. With that said, I searched for Big Ten expansion this morning and discovered that in early August the Big Ten also added Oregon and Washington State. The PAC n, is about done. It’s really a shame. College football is losing most of its traditional rivals. I’m a Penn State fan and PSU has been without a rival since they had Pitt on the schedule every year. I wouldn’t mind having OSU or Michigan as a rival, but that’s not going to happen. It takes two to tango and neither tOSU or scUM will ever think PSU as a rival. The Big Ten conference guys forced MSU on PSU has a rival. That’s not how rivalries are made. It takes decades of hate.
First the conferences will kill the NCAA.
Then they’ll merge.
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