Stanford and Cal to ACC buyout dooms as board members refuse to poll enough votes: Reports

Emerging reports on Stanford and Cal's move to the ACC indicate another deadlock.

Since the collapse of the Pac-12, the remaining four schools, especially Stanford and California, have had their future hanging in the balance. Several options are being sought as a way out of the conundrum, with the most popular being the potential departure from the Pac-12 to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

In the past few weeks, there has been a lot of back and forth over the possible realignment, with buyouts being discussed. There appears to be enough willingness on the part of the schools to make it happen. There have also been many pointers to the conference's openness to having them on board.

But as it seems, the willingness of the schools and the openness of the conference's administration will not be enough to make the move happen.

Several attempts to vote on adding Stanford and Cal to ACC have already failed. According to a college football insider, the latest of these meetings occurred on Friday. And, like all the previous tries, it didn't go through.

C.W. Lambert, who goes by @InsideTheBig12 on X, formerly Twitter, noted that the Atlantic Coast Conference did not receive enough votes.

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Why has Stanford and Cal's move to the ACC been hitting a deadlock?

Stanford, apparently the strongest of the remaining Pac-12 schools, has prioritized this switch to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Being in the same market, it makes sense to drag Cal along to present a more commercially appealing opportunity.

Despite the interest from top ACC officials to complete the expansion, a vote of two-thirds of the conference's Board of Presidents is needed. This vote has impeded the Atlantic Coast Conference from adding Stanford and Cal. Some Presidents in the conference are frustrated with the move.

Four schools leading the siege on the ACC's desire to bring Stanford and Cal are FSU, Clemson, North Carolina and North Carolina State. Among other grudges these schools seem to have against the conference administration, the equal revenue allocation format is chief.

But there are even more compelling arguments for their position. Being primarily an East Coast conference, the ACC has no business courting schools so far out west. A significant criticism of the ongoing conference realignment is how much it would require student-athletes to be on the road.

Many student-athletes have voiced out on having to play far from locations where their families can come to watch them. This argument is altruistic. But conference realignment has proven to be a capitalist venture, meaning profit takes precedence. In the meantime, Stanford and Cal continue in their search for a way out.