Atlantic Coast Conference Archives - National Football Post

Notre Dame AD says ACC caused ‘permanent damage’ with Miami campaign

Posted on 8 December 2025 | by Field Level Media

Notre Dame is not taking its perceived College Football Playoff snub lightly.

After announcing the Fighting Irish would opt out of a bowl on Sunday, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua embarked on a media tour to voice the school’s concerns.

He took aim at the Atlantic Coast Conference, with which Notre Dame has a football scheduling agreement, during an appearance Monday on the Dan Patrick Show.

“We were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports. I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say that they have done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said.

“We didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami, not by Miami, but it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us. … People might disagree with us, but that’s just not something we’d be comfortable with.”

Notre Dame, which won its final 10 games after an 0-2 start that included a loss to Miami, was ahead of the Hurricanes throughout the College Football Playoff rankings until Miami jumped the Fighting Irish on Sunday to claim the final at-large bid.

The Irish joined the ACC in all sports aside from football and hockey in 2013 and agreed in 2014 to play five football games against ACC opponents each season to fill out their schedule.

The official ACC Football account on X posted a direct Miami-Notre Dame comparison graphic on Dec. 1 with the caption, “The best part about football? You get to settle it on the field.”

The ACC Network also re-broadcast Miami’s season-opening win over Notre Dame at least 13 times in the days leading up to the CFP field announcement.

The ACC would have been excluded from the field — and missed out on quite a bit of money — had Miami not made it due to five-loss Duke winning the conference championship.

–Field Level Media

Jul 22, 2025; Charlotte, NC, USA; ACC commissioner Jim Phillips speaks to the media during ACC Media Days at Hilton Charlotte Uptown. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

ACC will shift to 9-game schedule, joining rest of Power 4

Posted on 22 September 2025 | by Field Level Media

The Atlantic Coast Conference is set to follow suit with the other power conferences and introduce a new scheduling model, which will include nine conference games for each school.

This shift was announced by the league Monday afternoon after all 17 member-school athletic directors voted to approve this change during a meeting earlier in the day. Each season, all ACC teams will play nine conference opponents and will be obligated to play a 10th game against an opponent from another Power Four conference.

The new model will be formally adopted after it is presented to the ACC’s faculty athletics representatives. It wasn’t announced by the ACC if it will go into effect for the 2026 or 2027 season.

“We have been incredibly intentional throughout our discussions on ACC Football, including the future of our conference schedule. Today, the athletic directors of the 17 football-playing institutions overwhelmingly supported a regular season schedule that includes nine conference games and a minimum of 10 games each year against Power 4 opponents,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a press release. “This positions the ACC as one of only two leagues committed to having every team annually play a minimum of 10 games against Power 4 teams. There will be additional discussions and more details to be determined, but today’s decision showcases the commitment and leadership of our ADs in balancing what is best for strengthening the conference and their respective programs.”

The Southeastern Conference announced Aug. 21 that it will be moving to a nine-game conference schedule starting in 2026. Each team will have three annual opponents while rotating between the other 12 teams in the league on a biannual basis.

The Big 12 was the first Power Four conference to introduce a nine-game conference schedule in 2011 and the Big Ten followed suit in 2016.

One unique problem the ACC will have to navigate is having an uneven number of full-time members with 17. This means every team won’t be able to play exactly nine conference games in a season.

Potential solutions could include allowing one team a year to play eight conference games and two games against Power Four opponents or counting one of the ACC’s annual games against Notre Dame in the conference standings.

–Field Level Media

Report: ACC teams up with Big 12 in House vs. NCAA case

Posted on 22 May 2024 | by Field Level Media

The Atlantic Coast Conference will be working alongside the Big 12 in House v. NCAA, and it will vote to settle that case in addition to other antitrust cases related to it, ESPN reported Tuesday.

A settlement is expected to pass, which would create a framework that would allow schools to give millions of dollars to athletes in the future. Former athletes who couldn’t sign Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals would also have access to a fund of over $2.7 billion.

There will be four more votes this week, with three coming from Power Five conferences and the other coming from the NCAA board of governors.

Presidents of ACC schools voted in-person in Charlotte on Tuesday, the same day that presidents and chancellors of Big 12 universities met virtually to vote. Texas and Oklahoma, the departing members of the Big 12, stayed away from that vote, which resulted in unanimous approval.

ESPN’s report indicated that conferences are putting forth little resistance to the settlement, and the NCAA is also in the same boat.

The Pac-12 will be voting as a 12-team conference, the way it was when the House v. NCAA case was filed.

As part of the settlement, the NCAA would have to pay over $2.7 billion in back damages over a decade. About $1.6 billion of that won’t be given to the schools.

Schools are trying to settle to avoid things spiraling further out of control in the future, something that legal experts foresee happening because of the NCAA’s poor track record in court cases, per ESPN’s report.

–Field Level Media

Clemson running back Will Shipley walks into the locker room before the ACC Championship football game with North Carolina at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina Saturday, Dec 3, 2022. (Via OlyDrop)

Clemson sues ACC over grant of media rights, withdrawal penalty

Posted on 19 March 2024 | by Field Level Media

Clemson is suing the Atlantic Coast Conference, becoming the second school to take the conference to court over grant of media rights.

Clemson filed its suit Tuesday in Pickens County, S.C. Florida State sued the conference in December.

The contention by Clemson is that the ACC claims it owns the media rights of member schools to home games through 2036 — even if a school departs the conference. Clemson also says in the suit that schools must pay $140 million to leave the conference on top of the grant of media rights.

Those factors hinder “Clemson’s ability to meaningfully explore its options regarding conference membership, to negotiate alternative revenue-sharing proposals among ACC members, and to obtain full value for its future media rights.”

Clemson was one of seven schools that reportedly have been investigating a departure from the conference amid a changing college landscape.

Following a new agreement with the College Football Playoff and ESPN, the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference schools are set to receive more than $21 million, most ACC schools will get upward of $13 million, and Notre Dame and Big 12 members will be paid more than $12 million from television revenues.

The Big Ten is expanding by four members — USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington — in the upcoming academic year. The ACC is adding three schools — SMU as well as Stanford and Cal, which left the Pac-12 as members’ departures decimated the conference.

Oklahoma and Texas are leaving the Big 12 for the SEC — the move that triggered a seismic shift in college conferences.

–Field Level Media

Report: Four ACC schools oppose adding Cal, Stanford

Posted on 12 August 2023 | by Field Level Media

Talk of the Atlantic Coast Conference expanding is reportedly “on life support,” with Clemson and Florida State among four schools that oppose adding Cal and Stanford.

The ACC presidents have not scheduled a call to resume discussions of expansion, and there is no definitive deadline to make a decision, ESPN reported, adding that talks continued into Friday night.

Twelve of the 15 schools most vote to approve of expansion, and ESPN reported that a vote won’t be called unless the affirmative votes are assured.

North Carolina and North Carolina State were the other schools not wanting to add the two Pac-12 programs, which have seen their conference gutted by defections to the Big Ten and the Big 12.

Also hanging over the ACC are the comments from Florida State’s president last week that the school would have to “very seriously” weigh leaving the conference unless its revenue distribution model is revamped.

An element of opposition to ACC expansion has been that it wouldn’t enhance the conference’s bottom line.

The Mountain West Conference was reported on Thursday to be awaiting word on Cal and Stanford, as well as Oregon State and Washington State, which also remain from the collapsed Pac-12.

Multiple media outlets reported earlier this week that the ACC was considering SMU of the American Athletic Conference.

–Field Level Media

Nov 19, 2022; Berkeley, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal defensive lineman Jaxson Moi (51) tackles California Golden Bears running back Jaydn Ott (6) during the fourth quarter at FTX Field at California Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Report: ACC to discuss adding Cal, Stanford

Posted on 7 August 2023 | by Field Level Media

Leaders in the Atlantic Coast Conference have scheduled a pair of meetings “in the next 24 hours” to discuss potentially adding Cal and Stanford to the conference, ESPN reported Monday.

The two Northern California schools were left behind in the decimated Pac-12 in recent weeks, with a total of four teams bolting for the Big 12 and two more for the Big 10. That leaves the Pac-12 with just four teams — Cal, Stanford, Washington State and Oregon State — in the fold in the future.

ESPN said one meeting will involve ACC athletic directors, with league presidents and chancellors on the other call.

But it’s far from a done deal. ESPN said the four remaining schools are the subject of “myriad options being discussed.”

Per Yahoo Sports, the ACC presidents and chancellors were scheduled to meet last Friday to discuss adding five to seven schools from the Pac-12. The option was off the table with Arizona, Arizona State and Utah following Colorado to the Big 12, and Washington and Oregon going to the Big Ten.

Southern California and UCLA announced in June 2022 that they would become Big Ten members beginning with the 2024-25 academic year.

–Field Level Media

ACC moving headquarters to Charlotte

Posted on 20 September 2022 | by Field Level Media

The Atlantic Coast Conference will move its North Carolina-based headquarters from its longtime home of Greensboro to Charlotte in 2023.

The 15-member board of directors voted unanimously to make the change, the conference announced Tuesday.

The conference said in a news release that the Charlotte home base will “ensure that the conference office is best positioned for the future and changing dynamics of intercollegiate athletics.”

Among the factors that went into the decision were access to a hub airport with accessibility to all ACC member schools, and population growth of the city.

Charlotte is approaching 900,000 residents which Greensboro has about 300,000, according to census figures. Greensboro had been the ACC’s home for 69 years.

The league will transition to its new headquarters in the Bank of America tower in Uptown Charlotte during this academic year.

–Field Level Media