ACC expansion to include Stanford, Cal, and SMU finally happening: Reports

The Atlantic Coast Conference has joined in on conference realignment as there has been breaking news on the ACC expansion front. It is being reported that the Stanford Cardinal, California Golden Bears, and SMU Mustangs are joining the conference.

College football insider Greg Swaim first reported this news. This comes after the Pac-12 schools were reportedly begging to join the ACC by not accepting conference money for an undisclosed amount of years.

With the addition of three schools, Ross Dellinger of Yahoo Sports is reporting that the Atlantic Coast Conference will make $72 million in additional revenue. The ACC becomes the fourth Power Five conference to announce expansion in 2024 as the Pac-12 is the only conference without any additions.

It will be interesting to see which school changed from a 'no' to a 'yes' as Clemson, Florida State, NC State, and North Carolina were the four schools to vote no for ACC expansion. It left the ACC one vote shy of expansion earlier in August.

What does this breaking ACC expansion news mean for the Pac-12?

The Pac-12 may officially be over as there are just two programs remaining: Oregon State and Washington State. There is a chance the Pac-12 and the two remaining teams merge with the Mountain West Conference if they want to survive.

Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff and Oliver Luck have looked at all potential scenarios and it seems there has not been a fit to this point.

What do these three ACC expansion teams mean for the conference?

The addition of SMU, California, and Stanford puts the Atlantic Coast Conference at 17 teams currently. That would mean unless they were to have an unbalanced schedule, the conference would be having a team not play each week.

In terms of travel, this creates a little West Coast hub with California and Texas being included. While other sports are going to have some issues, the money generated from this move is going to be worth the headaches for the athletic departments.

The conference gets a little bit more money as a result and that seems to be the major plus on things. With the three new programs adding revenue and not accepting conference money for an unknown amount of years, this will be a way to keep Clemson and Florida State from looking elsewhere.

This also keeps the ACC alive as they are able to create a superconference with the ACC expansion. While they are objectively the weakest of the non-Pac-12 Power Five conferences, this was something that was important for their survival.