Fair, but Stanford finished third in the final AP poll in recent memory. Maryland and Rutgers havenāt done that in decades, if ever.
(They suck now though.)
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Yormark out maneuvered his counter parts in the ACC and PAC. His background was a strength. Yormark had been working Arizona and Colorado for a long time. Phillips is an AD. Outclassed from the start. This was money, and media, and entertainment.
The hope would be that the ACC is more prepared to do in a few years time what they should have been prepared to do this time around.
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The scraps are OSU and WSU. Stanford is better (athletic brand) than ASU and Colorado too.
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Stanford has been to five New Yearās Day bowls in the last 15 years. Not scraps.
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If that were the case, why did the BIG10 and BIG12 not go for them instead? Seeing how desperate Stanford clearly is, itās hard to argue they would have said no.
Theyāve had a solid football program (in part because they had a hall of fame coach for a while), but how big is their fanbase? I honestly donāt know, so if somebody does, thatād be helpful. Itās a rich fanbase, but are they drawing a ton of eyeballs? Iām guessing thatās why they got left out of the two previous raids of their conference and left as one of only four PAC schools with nowhere to go.
No idea why the Big 10 did not go for them. I think we were the preference for Stanford over the Big 12. I am sure they would have gotten an invite if we had rejected them.
This is what makes it all so stupid. They just surrendered way before it was necessary. And even worseā¦if it does fall part and teams leave, I think they still did an injustice to the schools that will be left. Who knows what the landscape looks like even five years from now, which schools might be available etc. It was a total panic sellout move.
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Call me an anomaly ā¦ I like it for now ā¦ here in NC. Especially if they divide the divisions like I posited above. 
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I will just say letās see how this plays out in football for the next 3-5 years. If Stanford and SMU cannot ramp things up then this move will be a disaster. But if they can we will all be celebrating it. Weāll see.
You mean like Bama and Auburn? Ole Miss and Miss State? Texas and Texas A&M?
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Yeah, as others have said, while some of expansion is still about geographic coverage and adding new states (see the whole carriage fees thing for the ACC network), itās seemingly a lot about how many eyeballs you bring to broadcasts now than where youāre located. I believe FSU still has very good TV ratings, so at the end of the day, I think the SEC would still bring them in. Probably same with Clemson.
That said, the SEC would probably prefer schools that brought in new border states and generate good ratings (UNC probably a good fit). FSU and Clemson may be surprised where they fall in the pecking order. But all are pretty valuable brands.
Others probably know more than me and it is hard to sort through all of the nonsense that is published about conference realignment, but from what I understand there were a lot of factors on why Cal and Stanford didnāt go to the Big XII:
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Colorado had zero confidence in the commissioner and was leaving a long time ago. There was familiarity with the Big XII and they were the first school to see the writing on the wall after the PAC rejected a deal similar in pay to what the Big XII got.
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Arizona was out early too, they had been talking to Yormark for a long time.
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Arizona state was delusional but essentially dragged in by politics. May or may not have been required to take in order to get Arizona. I tend to think not, but hard to tell.
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Utah didnāt want to go but knew what time it was.
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Stanford is disorganized given some leadership controversies at the university. There have been published articles suggesting that the only reason Stanford was even able to move now was that Rice and some others took over.
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Stanford and Cal were snooty. Not really a polite way to put it. They see themselves as above Big XII schools.
But even so, it still took SMU bailing out the deal by going to 9 years. But if Stanford or Cal had truly wanted in the Big XII I have a hard time believing they wouldnāt have been preferred to a second team in Utah and a second team in AZ. Yormark took what he could get, and it was a three run homer at worst. That conference was toast, and now stands to outlast the ACC if we arenāt careful.
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I think you are aware of the difference. Kicking someone out is not the same as bringing someone in. Although, donāt worry, thatās likely coming at some point.
FSU and Clemson are in no way shape or form as valuable as Texas.
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I get it, but there is a reason the Big XII took UCF, Houston, etc. Have to stabilize first and make the conference attractive. Cal and Stanford are there and available. In five years without adding them it is more likely Tulane and Rice are the choices than say Arizona. Or being scattered to the winds.
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The difference between the Big 12 adding those schools and the ACCā¦is the Big 12 did it after losing their major brands. They didnāt surrender themselves to permanent secondary status until they were forced to. And you still didnāt see them selling out to SMU.
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100% agree. The ACC is not better today than it was yesterday on a National scale.
We added a school in Cal that absolutely no one gives a shit about. We added a school in SMU that should be a buy game, not a conference game. And we added Stanford that is a solid school And athletic department that makes zero geographical sense and no one else wanted.
We have 3 more mouths to feed long term. 3 more votes to make things harder. Just DUMB, DUMB, DUMB.
Unlessā¦weāre adding schools so the ACC is in a position to continue to exist after a mass exodus.
Still believe we are SEC bound.
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Sorry if this has been asked and answered already, but how is Cal going to handle traveling to states on Californiaās travel restrictions list? Thatās basically half of the ACC (all schools in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida).
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Above somewhere they are talking about meeting in Dallas for non-rev games. No idea for hoops or the gridiron. Are those still in effect? Really?
I saw the travel restrictions topic mentioned somewhere this weekā¦the person writing wanted those lifted as part of the deal for admission to the ACC haha. Anyway apparently sporting events is already an exemption in the law.
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