Atlantic Coast Conference presidents and chancellors held a conference call Tuesday but took no action on West Coast expansion with California and Stanford, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the league isn’t publicly revealing internal discussions regarding realignment. Another person with knowledge of the situation said the conference’s athletic directors were planning to have a call later Tuesday to continue discussions. The ADs also met Monday.
A third person told AP on condition of anonymity that the ACC’s conversations also include the possibility of adding SMU, the Dallas school currently in the American Athletic Conference.
The Pac-12 is down to four schools committed to the conference beyond the upcoming school year. This will be the last season in the Pac-12 for USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, which are all headed for the Big Ten in 2024. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah will join the Big 12 next year.
The new Big Ten setup means athletes will be routinely crossing multiple time zones to compete.
“I share concerns about the impact that the recent spate of conference realignment activities will have on student-athletes’ well-being,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in statement. “The recent conference moves highlight what I found during my review of the issues facing the NCAA – the growing gap between well-resourced Division I schools and the rest of the division is highly disruptive for all of DI and college sports overall.”
Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey said on the SEC Network’s “Paul Finebaum Show” that his league is not motivated to react to the recent moves.
“I would submit we’re in an enormously healthy place. We’re not in the current movement efforts,” said Sankey, whose conference tipped the first domino in this round of realignment in 2021 when Texas and Oklahoma decided to make leave the Big 12…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply