The Addition of Cal, Stanford and SMU to the ACC Still Could Happen

A couple of weeks back, Cal and Stanford being added to the ACC was shutdown by 4 schools: NC State, UNC, FSU and Clemson.

At that point, it seemed like the expansion of the ACC with these two particular schools was dead in the water, but it looks like that might not in fact be the case.

In fact, not only are talks still alive regarding the addition of Cal and Stanford, but SMU is also in the mix.

If an official vote actually took place, which one hasn’t in fact taken place yet, only one of the 4 naysaying schools listed above would have to change their tune.

Here’s a rundown of why the talks aren’t dead according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo!.

• Through the addition of the three schools, the ACC would receive an additional $72 million annually. According to the contract, ESPN has to dish out $24 million per school.
• Apparently Cal and Stanford are willing to take 30% of the Tier 1 share from ESPN ($24 million) for a couple of years, meaning they would only take roughly $8-10 million of that, leaving the remainder to be distributed.
• Apparently SMU is down to take none of that $24 million annually for 7 years, leaving all of that money to be distributed.
• The payout of ESPN money has been equal up to to this point, but apparently with the additional available money in this possibility, the remainder wouldn’t be distributed equally, which has been the primary concern of the likes of FSU and Clemson.
  • “The incentives are expected to be heavily weighted toward football success, including such things as winning championships, final top-25 rankings and bowl assignments.”
  • This is a small step in the direction that FSU and Clemson desire, though they would love to see each team not earn an even share of the current ESPN money based on the 14 teams currently in the ACC.
• According to the report, ACC presidents and Athletic Directors were expected to discuss this today.
• An official decision could be made within the next couple of weeks.

(Yahoo!)