Debate over ACC expansion simmers between school presidents

Debates are raging among the presidents of schools in the ACC over conference expansion and the future of the group as a whole, according to Yahoo Sports college football reporter Ross Dellenger.

On Wednesday night, presidents of the 14 ACC schools and Notre Dame (an associate member for football and a full member for all other sports) met to discuss possible expansion of the conference. Most of the school leaders were in favor of adding two of the remaining Pac-12 schools, Stanford and Cal (the University of California, Berkeley), and possibly Southern Methodist University (SMU) from the American Athletic Conference (AAC). However, some of the presidents were opposed for logistical reasons.

Dellenger said that the presidents who were on board with adding Stanford and Cal weren't just looking at athletic pedigree, but also academics:

Stanford is No. 3 in the U.S. News & World Reports rankings of the top universities in America. Think of it like the AP poll for higher education institutions. Cal is No. 20. Those two programs would give the ACC seven top-30 institutions — the most of any FBS league. Five members are currently in the top 30, including Duke (10), Notre Dame (19), Virginia (25), Wake Forest (T-29) and North Carolina (T-29). To that end, SMU is ranked No. 72. While that pales in comparison to the others, it’s a solid showing.

Yet those who are resistant to adding the current Pac-12 schools are concerned about the costs of travel for the non-revenue-generating "Olympic" sports:

If you were to drive from Palo Alto, California, (the home of Stanford) to Raleigh, North Carolina, (home of NC State and also the ACC’s most central location), it would take you … 45 hours.

Get the point? Seven of the ACC’s 14 full members are less than 200 miles from one another. The Bay Area is at least 2,000 miles for most ACC schools.

Traveling a football or basketball team there is one thing. Those sports, especially football, pay for themselves in the travel department. However, most Olympic sports lose millions every year. And now schools plan to ship their volleyball, soccer and swimming teams across the country? The financial piece of this isn’t even the most important. This is a four-time zone jump that features four and five-hour flight times.

Although there's a chance that all of the incumbent ACC schools could make more money in their ongoing TV deal with ESPN due to specific contract language regarding expansion, the dollars would still pale in comparison with what members of the SEC and Big Ten will make in their new rights deals. There's a belief that the additional money still wouldn't make up for the travel costs of cross-country travel for non-revenue-generating teams.

There are concerns regarding SMU as well, a school that became infamous for its "death penalty" through the 1990s that has major financial backing from boosters who can make it all the more challenging for incumbent schools to compete. Yet, it appears that the California schools present a greater worry for the ACC. 

It's one thing for NC State football to make a rare trip to Northern California as a visit from the Wolfpack could excite the alumni living out West and give them a reason to make the trip to Santa Clara or Berkeley. It's another for the cross-country or tennis teams to do the same and expect those trips to be worthwhile. 

Either way, it appears that the incumbent schools are trying to extract even more money from ESPN despite the network's own struggles to adapt to a new economic climate.