Notre Dame Pushing for ACC to Add Stanford, Cal: Report
Conference realignment may not yet be over, at least according to this new report on Wednesday from Action Network‘s Brett McMurphy.
The first report came from Tigers Illustrated‘s Larry Williams, who reported that Notre Dame, which has a full ACC vote, despite only being a partial member, is actively pushing for the ACC to bring in Cal and Stanford.
The interesting twist, according to McMurphy’s sources, is that Notre Dame won’t join the ACC as a full-time member. So the Irish are heavily advocating for this move, however do not intend to jump all in on the ACC themselves.
And then there is SMU, who is still pushing hard for an ACC invite. McMurphy and others have reported that SMU is willing to forego any league revenue for the first 5-7 years upon joining the conference. If the Mustangs were to get the invite, they would be giving up nearly $150 million over a five-year span.
The Mustangs reportedly view this as a moment in college football history where they have to get into a Power 5 Conference, and the donor base has the cash to cover the revenue shortfalls in the short-term. Essentially, the Mustangs are playing the 20-30 year game vs. the 2-3 year game.
If this worked out, the Mustangs would receive a full ACC share by 2030, while Stanford and Cal would receive a reduced share of about 70% of what the ACC schools currently receive.
ACC Presidents are meeting on Wednesday night and would need 12 of 15 schools to agree for any expansion to take place.
