Notre Dame Jack Swarbrick revealed the reason why he is trying to convince the ACC to add Cal and Stanford.
The Pac-12 currently features just four teams that aren’t moving to a new conference in 2024 — Stanford, Cal, Washington State, and Oregon State. With the Pac-12 seemingly on its last legs, these four schools are looking to find a new home. For Cal and Stanford, there was seemingly some promise that they could remain in a Power Five conference.
This week, the ACC held exploratory talks to discuss potentially adding Cal and Stanford. As it turns out, as first reported by Larry Williams of Tiger Illustrated, Notre Dame was pushing the ACC to add both programs. However, as reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, potentially adding Cal and Stanford hit “significant roadblocks” on Wednesday night.
So, why was Notre Dame pushing to add both Pac-12 schools to the ACC?
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick spoke with ESPN’s Heather Dinich on Thursday and had this to say about why his school is making a push to add Cal and Stanford.
“The notion that two of the very best academic institutions in the world who also play D1 sports could be abandoned in this latest chapter of realignment is an indictment of college athletics,” said Swarbrick, h/t Dinich.
Notre Dame’s Jack Swarbrick reveals why he’s pushing for ACC to add Cal and Stanford
Those are some strong words by Swarbrick, who seemingly won’t stand by to see “two of the very best academic institutions” be without a home.
Despite this, there was no vote held for ACC presidents on Wednesday night, as they didn’t have nearly enough votes, per Brett McMurphy of the Action Network. For approval of the expansion, 12-of-15 presidents would have to vote yes.
Notre Dame is an independent school, but has partial membership with the ACC.
Moving Stanford and Cal to the ACC wouldn’t make much geographical sense considering they are Pacific Coast teams looking to join the literal Atlantic Coast Conference. But, with how the conferences have realigned now, geography is a non-factor.
While a path to the ACC has hit a roadblock, there are other options for Cal and Stanford. On3 Sports’ Eric Prisbell reported that the American Athletic Conference (AAC) would be interested in adding some or all of Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington State. The AAC is a Group of Five (G5) conference, not a P5 conference.
There’s also the obvious move to the Mountain West conference.
It’s unknown if there will be any momentum for the ACC to listen to Swarbrick’s insistence and add both Cal and Stanford. However, there should be more clarity on which conference they will call home soon.