All Coasts Conference: ACC moving closer to adding Cal, Stanford, SMU

Last week, Thamel reported that Stanford and Cal would take a reduced share of revenue while SMU would receive no broadcast media revenue "for the first seven years it is in the league."

Those financial sacrifices, Thamel wrote, "will create a pool of money, and the ACC presidents are having discussions on how it would be split." 

Per the latest development, the presidents were able to hash out a plan over the weekend.

Thamel stressed that "the details are 'only in pencil,'" meaning there's still time to botch it, but the ACC would be foolish not to finalize the additions.

The $50M-$60M per year would be on par with the SEC's reported $60M per school in media rights and substantially more than the Big 12's $31.6M. 

Cal, Stanford and SMU get the short end of the stick but neither Cal nor Stanford can afford to be left behind in the conference realignment shuffle, while a move to a major conference is an opportunity SMU can't pass.

The move is even more of a no-brainer for the ACC. Florida State missed its opportunity to opt out of the conference for the 2024 season and turning its attention toward making the ACC stronger is the best course of action.

The best way to do that is by adding a couple of Pac-12 schools begging for a home. With SMU in the mix, the ACC's Western footprint would expand into the Dallas media market as well.

If ACC presidents agree on the terms of expansion, it will likely save the conference from imploding. It's unfortunate that the Pac-12 had to fall apart for the ACC to survive, but college football has grown too big to care about minor things such as storied rivalries or sensible geographic additions.

It makes no sense for the Atlantic Coast Conference to have teams in both the heart of Texas and on the Pacific coast, but in college football's food chain, it's eat or be eaten. The ACC should feast.