What’s next for Stanford after ACC schools oppose its addition? | College Football Enquirer

Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Ross Dellenger, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde hop on the College Football Enquirer to discuss the next steps for Stanford after multiple ACC schools opposed its addition to the conference, and debate if the ‘big guns’ of Condoleezza Rice and Jerry Yang can help to sway some opinions in favor of the Cardinal.

Video transcript

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DAN WETZEL: The ACC's efforts to land Cal and Stanford, and potentially SMU, but Cal and Stanford have hit a snag. Ross, update us on this one.

ROSS DELLENGER: Well, let's see. The ACC presidents met Monday. And then they met for-- basically took a straw poll on Wednesday night on these expansion additions, Florida State and Clemson and North Carolina and NC State were opposed and seemed to be pretty firmly opposed.

How long does specifically Stanford wait? And how much do they keep pushing to try to sway the votes? And from what I understand, they have called the big guns of Stanford to try to encourage these schools that voted against to vote for. And they've done some of the same things with the Big Ten too.

It's kind of a sad situation, right? Stanford, arguably the best athletic department in the country, has more national championships, team national titles than anybody. They don't have a home. And they're calling and begging the Big Ten and the ACC to take them. It's quite a situation that we're in.

DAN WETZEL: What constitutes the big guns of Stanford?

ROSS DELLENGER: Well, you think about the one name that comes to mind, right? I believe she was secretary--

DAN WETZEL: Pat Forde?

ROSS DELLENGER: --of state.

[LAUGHTER]

I believe she was secretary of state.

DAN WETZEL: OK, Condi Rice, yeah.

ROSS DELLENGER: So I think that's been somebody that people have heard from.

And there's another part of this too, and it's taking a reduced share, both with the Big Ten and the ACC. I think Stanford has come forward with a plan that they will take a significantly reduced share, certainly for the Big Ten but the ACC as well.

And what's a reduced share? I mean, the share in the ACC-- the TV share in the ACC season is around, what? Low to mid 30s, I think, just the TV portion-- and it was made clear to me that Stanford and Cal were going to take around $20 or low $20 millions, like 60 70% of a share.

With the Big Ten, maybe Stanford is-- it sounds like Stanford's being a little even more aggressive in a way in wanting to take a significantly reduced share to be able to join that league.

So they're in a pickle.

PAT FORDE: Yeah, Condi Rice, Jerry Yang, whose name should resonate in the halls of Yahoo.

DAN WETZEL: He is our hero.

PAT FORDE: That's right.

DAN WETZEL: Founder of Yahoo, great man.

PAT FORDE: Founder of Yahoo also, I think, pitching in to help. We are down to cutting time here as far as trying to get things in line for 2024. There is not a lot of time to waste. So this week, I would expect Stanford to have to make a declaration, perhaps, of some kind.