Stanford and Cal will sacrifice their media revenue for 9 years after accepting a brand new ACC membership: Reports

Stanford and Cal had to forgo the media revenue money for nine years to get into the ACC.

As the Pac-12 fell apart, Stanford and Cal were interested in joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. Initially, the schools were not supported enough and were not voted in.

However, both schools were persistent with it and revealed it would take little to no media rights money, which eventually flipped North Carolina State to allow them into the conference.

According to NBC Bay Area, Stanford and Cal will only receive a partial share of ACC Tier 1 media revenue, which is about $25 million for the next nine years. The schools will get full payments for the final three years of the ACC's media rights deal with ESPN.

The complete breakdown in the report is that both schools will get a 30% share in the first seven years, followed by 70% in year eight and 75% in year nine before getting the total amount.

Although the schools will not be getting the total revenue from the ACC, that didn't appear to be much of an issue.

ACC is happy to expand by three schools

Along with Stanford and Cal, SMU was also voted into the ACC for 2024.

As there are rumors that Clemson and Florida State will leave, the conference is protecting itself by adding the three schools. If the ACC falls below 15 members, ESPN can renegotiate the media rights deal, so even if the two schools do leave, as some suspect, it would still be in the safe zone.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips was also thrilled by the expansion and believes it puts the conference in a good spot.

"It really is a transformational day for the ACC. I can tell you when we left that call today, everybody was in a really good place and felt really good about the process."

Whether or not FSU and Clemson will end up staying in the ACC is to be seen. But, for now, the conference appears to be happy by adding Stanford, Cal, and SMU starting July 1, 2024.