It appears that the ACC is looking into the potential of adding from the talent-rich states of California and Texas.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the ACC presidents and chancellors and then the ACC athletic director took exploratory calls Tuesday morning surrounding potential ACC expansion with Cal and Stanford. But no vote was taken.
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that the ACC is now also considering adding SMU. He further reported that the ACC administrators are reviewing financial models that include adding all three or just the two Pac-12 schools.
“Maybe even more important: The university would arrive at a reduced rate,” Dellenger wrote. “Employing a rich donor base and a healthy desire to advance to the Power Four level, the university is open to forgoing conference distribution pay for its first several years in a new league. SMU officials held similar conversations with Pac-12 administrators.”
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has been against the idea of ACC expansion in the past, but that tune has changed in recent weeks. In an interview with ESPN’s David Hale, Phillips was not against the idea of adding to the conference.
“The ACC has been and remains highly engaged in looking at anything that makes us a better and stronger conference,” Phillips told ESPN. “We’ve spent considerable time on expansion to see if there is anything that fits. We have a tremendous group of institutions but if there was something that made us better, we would absolutely be open to it.”
It would be very difficult for any ACC member program to get out of the current Grant of Rights agreement, but it appears that expansion would be much more feasible. However, it remains to be seen how adding the likes of Cal, SMU and Stanford would move the needle.
With the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 all growing over the last couple of years, inking new TV deals, the ACC isn’t in a position to strike a new deal. But the conference can do whatever it can to remain profitable.
SMU’s about the same size as TCU, so….maybe not a bad choice? TCU has certainly been successful since joining the Big XII.