So, the unwanted inevitable became official in the early hours of Friday morning when 12 out of 15 Atlantic Coast Conference presidents and chancellors decided to panic-add Cal, SMU and Stanford beginning in July of 2024. It was North Carolina State chancellor Randy Woodson who flipped on his initial standing (Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina remained firmly opposed), giving way to overstuff the ACC with three schools that have little business being in this conference.
As I try to wrap my head around another turgid 18-team mega-league (17 in football, where of course Notre Dame remains independent), it’s now just dawning on me that things like “Syracuse @ Cal” and “Stanford @ Boston College” are eligible to be conference games starting next year. My god, it’s so hideous it’s hilarious. What the hell are we doing here, folks.
Let it be screamed that this decision will not age well. We will look up at the end of this decade and find the majority of these realignment maneuvers from the past 26 months will not make college sports better. The ACC’s tacky trio could top the list. Sure, there will be perks and some fun matchups that materialize in the too-big-to-flop Big Ten, SEC and Big 12, but major college athletics isn’t evolving into a superior edition of itself. The plot has been lost in hopes that money will be able to write a better future. It almost certainly will not.
This is being done in 2023 in a chase for television capital allegedly waiting in the 2030s. But let’s face the elephant: Nobody in the TV industry can speak with clarity, conviction or clairvoyance about what the media-rights landscape will look like five years from now, let alone 10 or more. The ACC’s deal ends in 2036. NOBODY KNOWS. ACC leadership is attaching itself to Cal, Stanford and SMU in hopes that this can keep them afloat in an ever-increasing race for money — with no assurances that college sports’ money…
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