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With the Pac-12 seemingly falling off into the sea and nowhere else to turn, the Cal Golden Bears and Stanford Cardinal athletic programs reached out for a lifeline in 2023. In doing so, they found the open arms of the ACC, which welcomed the two programs as well as SMU as new members of the conference beginning in 2024.
Unfortunately for both Cal and Stanford, the deal came with a caveat. They will receive just a 30% share of ACC payouts for the first seven years in the conference. That number will jump to 70% in Year 8, 75% in Year 9 and then full financial shares in the 10th year, sources said.
While that alone is a big problem, the problem becomes even larger when you consider the added costs of regularly traveling across the country for competition.
Luca Evans of Front Office Sports reports that the two programs are now expressing serious regrets over their decision to jump ship and join the conference on the other side of the country.
“According to data mapped and analyzed by FOS, Cal and Stanford fall sports programs both traveled around 65,000 miles farther for ACC play than in the Pac-12 in 2023,” Evans reports. “The mileage, too, comes at a price. Cal’s acting CFO, Josh Hummel, estimates the single-year increase in travel costs from joining the ACC is upward of $1 million.”
Cal’s women’s volleyball learned the hard way what cross-country travel meant when an emergency landing turned a trip to Florida State into a 24-hour ordeal. They went on to lose to the Seminoles in straight sets. Stanford, meanwhile, took a four-hour plane ride followed by a four-hour bus to Notre Dame before having a 10 p.m. practice.
They were later scheduled to fly to Dallas for a game against SMU, return to Palo Alto then fly to Pittsburgh two days later. Ultimately, the Cardinal volleyball team just remained on the East Coast.
Non-revenue sports such as volleyball are more or less at the mercy of the football programs that run these athletic departments. But at some point, you have to weigh both the financial and human cost of these sorts of decisions.