ACC considering adding Cal, Stanford & SMU or just Cal & Stanford, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. 1st report by @RossDellenger. SMU has a $10 million exit fee to leave AAC w/less than 27 months notice so that number could double. In May, ACC source told @ActionNetworkHQ league had no interest in expanding. “We already have too many mouths to feed,” source said then. Today? “Obviously a lot has happened in the past few months”
I was thinking strictly along the lines of which nine they could actually convince Cal and Stanford to live with, allowing for the original members in the Rockies who seem to be inclined to stay together and could crater a dissolution vote in the MWC. It’s very clearly suboptimal from a football perspective, with Fresno in particular being left out because it would be a second CSU school and this one in the Northern half of the state, and Rice being included at the expense of many better programs, being the closest thing left to an academic blueblood.
This situation is not going to go great for the PAC-4, financially or competitively, and they need to figure their shit out sooner rather than later. The Bay schools hemming and hawing may have already fucked the four of them out of several more millions of dollars if they have to go indy and force the PNW Ag schools to join the MWC or AAC on normal shares. I do think if Fox finds some money for Cal and Stanford to beg their way into the B1G, they and ESPN might also find a few bucks for WSU and OSU to take partial shares in the B12, if for no other reason than to avoid litigation. 18 is awkward to select a top 2 for the CCG (probably just punt to the CFP committee), but three pods actually works out quite nicely for scheduling (5+2+2).