Atlantic Coast Conference adding Cal, Stanford, SMU is an act of desperation | D'Angelo
The SEC adds blue bloods Texas and Oklahoma.
The Big Ten brings in the top four football programs on the West Coast: USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington.
Even the Big 12 rises from the ashes and lures Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State.
The ACC? It finds two of the Pac-12's leftovers (Cal, Stanford), and a Group of Five program (SMU) willing to forfeit all media rights revenue to join a Power Five conference.
Nothing says Atlantic Coast like Berkeley, Palo Alto and Dallas.
Desperation.
While the ACC stood by, the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 enhanced their football and basketball brands.
Now, the ACC is gunning for the Ivy League when it comes to spots in the Brain Bowl playoffs, which we understand is thinking of expanding to eight or 12 teams.
But this is not about academics because we all know the ACC's sterling reputation there, even before adding two of the most respected academic institutions in the country in Cal and Stanford. Sorry, SMU.
And it's not about nonrevenue or Olympic sports either. Because if it were, the ACC hit the jackpot. Nobody has hoisted as many national championship trophies as Stanford, which currently stands at around 150.
Do you know how many of those were in football and basketball? Two. None since 1942. And Stanford's one official football title was shared with Alabama in 1926.
But I'll bet you didn't know that the conference did add one football powerhouse. The ACC now claims the Team of the '20s … the 1920s. That's when Cal won three consecutive national championships.
And the ACC just boosted its tennis, water polo and rugby profile, adding a school with 37 men's and women's tennis titles and 20 water polo championships in Stanford. And do not discount Cal's 33 rugby trophies.
ACC welcomes only university to receive the death penalty
And, of course, it will boast the only school to receive the death penalty, a distinction that belongs to SMU.
Commissioner Jim Phillips knocked it out of the park when it came to further separating the ACC from his Power Five peers academically. The ACC is adding the No. 3 (Stanford) and No. 6 (Cal) ranked colleges, according to Forbes.
No one advocated harder for the inclusion of Cal and Stanford than Notre Dame's Jack Swarbrick, the AD at the school that wants no part of being a part of the ACC's football roster.
Now if somehow this leads to Notre Dame deciding to shed its independence and join the ACC in football, then we all will eat our words.
But right now what you have is a conference in which 12 presidents and chancellors voted Friday to add Cal, Stanford and SMU. The three opposed: Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina. The league needed 12 yes votes. The final holdout to flip was North Carolina State.
FSU and Clemson clearly are the two programs that have the most clout when it comes to realignment.
Florida State President Rick McCullough released a statement Friday confirming his stance:
"We appreciate the efforts of Commissioner Phillips and our conference partners. There are many complicated factors that led us to vote no. That said, we welcome these truly outstanding institutions and look forward to working with them as our new partners in the Atlantic Coast Conference."
Chairman David L. Boliek Jr. and Vice Chairman John P. Preyer of UNC's board of trustees revealed the feelings of UNC's trustees on Thursday:
“The strong majority of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees opposes the proposed expansion of the Atlantic Coast Conference to include Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Methodist University.”
Cal, Stanford, SMU accept massive revenue discounts to join ACC
The three newcomers to the conference agreed to massive discounts when it comes to revenue sharing, proving the desperation did not stop with the league. Cal and Stanford will receive 30% of the league's annual distribution of about $35 million per school. SMU is forgoing all media rights revenue, agreeing to receive only its portion of money from bowl payouts, the College Football Playoff and NCAA basketball tournament units.
The ACC plans to use that extra money to help satisfy FSU, Clemson, North Carolina and others who have advocated for the top-performing programs responsible for bringing in more money receiving a bigger slice of the revenue-sharing pie.
And with the ACC falling behind in the arms race and possibly in danger of becoming the Pac-12 2.0, it was desperate. The league's current media rights deal with ESPN could be renegotiated if membership falls below 15. With Florida State and Clemson the most determined to find a way out of that deal — and others who would bolt given an opportunity — keeping that number at 15 or higher is crucial to the existence of the league.
Enter Cal, Stanford and SMU — the ACC's new security blankets.
More: Pac-12 down, Big 12 up as start of college football season overshadowed by realignment | D'Angelo
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: ACC adding Cal, Stanford, SMU act of desperation in expansion war with SEC, Big Ten
