Stanford and Cal can ‘die on the vine,’ says ACC head coach
Conference realignment has slowed of late, following the recent exodus of teams from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten (Oregon and Washington) and Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah), but there continues to be discourse surrounding the remaining four Pac-12 schools — Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State.
Both Oregon State and Washington State’s athletic directors, Scott Barnes and Pat Chun, have spoken recently about attempting to rebuild the conference, with Barnes telling The Athletic, “I do emphatically believe that four of us, as foundational members, can build something back that is real, tangible, and sets the course for the future.”
Stanford and Cal, meanwhile, having reportedly engaged the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) about possible membership, with Stanford reportedly offering to join the conference at a greatly reduced rate or with even no media rights payout for several years, reported The Associated Press.
The addition of Stanford and Cal to the ACC has been viewed by many as a non-starter, with Neal Pilson, former CBS Sports president, telling On3 Sports, “I don’t think either or both Cal and Stanford add sufficient value to an ACC TV package to induce the conference or ESPN to add them to the agreement. And the travel costs to the two schools for football, basketball and multiple Olympic sports would be prohibitive.”
Count North Carolina women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance among those who don’t believe the ACC should add Stanford or Cal.
As reported by The Messenger on Tuesday, Dorrance believes the Cardinal and Bears would be the only teams to benefit from their joining the ACC, expecting both Stanford and Cal to get a significant recruiting bump, to say nothing of a strenuous travel schedule all teams would experience.
“If you put those two schools in the ACC, it’s going to be so easy for them to recruit nationally. So it will just benefit them in my opinion, not us,” Dorrance said. “There’s no way I want to share the glory of our conference with two schools that could do a very good job recruiting against us.”
He continued: “So basically I want Cal and Stanford die on the vine. I look forward to seeing Stanford, which is a really difficult school to recruit against, I would look forward to them basically having it so difficult to recruit the elite soccer player, and then we would be in the position to gain those kids and put the ACC in an even stronger position.”
