ACC expansion update: Unpacking latest on Stanford, Cal, SMU and impact for Clemson

Conference realignment isn't finished yet, and ACC expansion is at the center of the latest rumblings.

About two weeks ago, the presidents of ACC member schools held a "straw poll" regarding the possibility of adding Stanford, Cal and/or SMU, according to multiple outlets. The unofficial vote failed, with Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and NC State the four schools saying no to expansion, according to Yahoo Sports and others.

The addition of those three schools is apparently still on the table, with the potential new members, the league and the member schools negotiating to determine a path forward. Reports differ on how expansion could happen: Yahoo Sports reported that it could be just SMU, just the two California schools or all three; Sports Illustrated reported that it's all three or none.

Here's what to know about what's going on in the ACC.

Why is the ACC expansion getting reconsidered?

In short: money. New financial models indicate that the ACC would earn an additional $72 million in annual revenue from its television deal with ESPN if it added the three schools thanks to a "pro-rata clause requiring the network to increase the value of the deal by one Tier 1 share for every new member," according to Yahoo Sports. A Tier 1 share is reportedly worth about $24 million.

The key element now being negotiated is how that additional revenue would be distributed. Remember, ACC members currently receive an estimated $30-35 million per year from the league's TV deal, far behind what their Big Ten and SEC peers receive from their deals.

The three prospective members are prepared to make concessions to get into the conference. Stanford and Cal are prepared to take a reduced revenue distribution for multiple years: about 25-30% of a normal share, according to Sports Illustrated and Yahoo Sports. SMU is proposing to take no distribution for as many as seven years, Yahoo Sports reported.

Prior to these expansion talks, Florida State and Clemson have voiced their displeasure with the amount they receive from annual TV distribution and advocated for an unequal revenue sharing model in which schools would be rewarded with a bigger payout for athletic performance and/or TV ratings.

The ACC announced an incentive-based distribution model in May, but that applies to the money the conference gets from member schools' performance in "revenue-generating postseason competition" — the College Football Playoff and NCAA men's basketball tournament.

But TV revenue is a much bigger portion of the conference's revenue than postseason payouts. In other words, a school like Clemson can earn a larger piece of the postseason pie if it continues to make the playoff, but a bigger slice of that is still smaller than a piece of the much bigger pie on which Clemson and others would like to fill up: TV revenue.

What might make Clemson, FSU, NC State, UNC reconsider 'no' votes?

Something resembling the unequal TV revenue share that they hope for.

Here's the math Yahoo Sports presented. Cal and Stanford have agreed to each take $7-10 million of the $24 million Tier 1 shares they would each bring in. After about $1-2 million per school to offset the teams' travel costs, the ACC is left with at least $30 million in revenue to re-distribute to members.

Got all that? Here's more math: If that $30 million were divided evenly among the other 15 ACC schools (including Notre Dame), it would be about $2 million per year tacked on to each school's annual payout. That's not moving the needle much when you consider the estimated $10-15 million gap between the annual payouts of the ACC and the Big Ten and SEC.

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Hence the desire for unequal distribution. To get the holdout schools to agree to adding new members, the ACC would likely have to introduce an incentive-based model largely based on football performance, Yahoo Sports reported.

When could this ACC expansion actually happen?

ACC presidents are meeting Thursday, and conference athletics directors are meeting separately Thursday as well, according to Yahoo Sports. That doesn't mean there's a vote happening, however. An actual decision could be made early next week, Yahoo Sports reports.

Christina Long covers the Clemson Tigers for the Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. You can follow her on Twitter @christinalong00 or email her at clong@greenvillenews.com.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: ACC expansion update: Stanford, Cal, SMU and Clemson football impact