With realignment talk hotter than ever, the ACC is looking to add three schools.
College sports are changing faster than ever. Conferences are collapsing while others eat them alive. For example, Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington are leaving the PAC-12 for the Big-10. It continues to look like there will be two power conferences, the Big-10 and SEC. With all of these changes, the ACC is trying to stay afloat.
Who May Join?
According to multiple sources on Twitter, the ACC is looking to add Stanford, Cal, and SMU or just Stanford and Cal. Should that happen, it will leave the PAC-12 with two schools remaining while SMU will finally join a power conference.
The Good
For obvious reasons, it makes it harder for the ACC to collapse with teams joining. SMU is in a great area in Texas and could rise to national prominence. They have a rich history in football and their basketball program is solid. Stanford is hit or miss in a lot of their athletics but their olympic sports are elite. Cal is a great school academically, but their sports are lackluster, and that’s putting it nicely.
The Bad
There are obvious problems with this move. None of these three are great in revenue sports. On top of that, the east coast teams in the ACC and these three programs having to travel across the country all the time puts stress on everyone involved.
With realignment revolving around money, college sports has stopped thinking about the student-athlete. They are not machines and still have classes to attend. The flights across the country on weekdays will not be easy, and will take a toll on everyone.
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