What, and who, are making the final call on Cal & Stanford joining the ACC?

Weddings are a celebration of finding the perfect fit. And with Indochino, you can design a custom suit made to your measurements.

Go to indochino.com and use code PODCAST for 10% off any order of $3.99 or more. We could sit here and go, well, how does the ACC survive what's going on now? I mean, I think that a document will allow the ACC to survive for at least the next decade.

Beyond that, I mean, what are the odds that college football even looks anything remotely like what it looks today, 10 years from now? That would be my question. And I will ask Andrea Adelson of ESPN that over time, she joins us on the Adam Gold Show. So, Andrea, first of all, thank you very much. I know short notice today, but the roadblocks came up. I feel like it's kind of a bad look to flirt with Cal and Stanford so openly for the last 24, 48 hours and then decide to kind of stay home and watch Ted Lasso by yourself and decide not to go on a date.

What's what's going on here? Well, this is not completely over. So let me first preface this by saying that they're still going to continue to have their discussions. They're close to having enough yes votes. They need 12 to go ahead and say yes to Cal and Stanford.

They're close to that number, which is why the discussions are going to continue in the hopes that maybe somebody decides to change their mind. The fact that this has become more open and more public is just a byproduct of Cal and Stanford kind of hanging out there and available because of what's happened with the PAC 12. The ACC has had conversations with schools from the PAC 12, with SMU, from other schools for the last year, year and a half, two years. But because of what has happened with the PAC 12, it's kind of accelerated this notion of should we act? Do we need to do something? Should we do something? Is this good for us?

Is it good for them? And that's part of the reason why we have seen kind of this back and forth within the ACC about what to do. But, you know, this is par for the course with a conference that has a lot of different schools with a lot of different interests and a lot of different priorities.

And so I'm not surprised this is the way that it's unfolded. The ACC has not been, other than maybe adding Miami now, what, 17, 18 years or 19 years ago, we're almost coming up on the 20th anniversary of the announcement that Miami was joining the ACC. This has not been its finest skill.

Expansion has not been awesome. It has been much more successful for some of the other leagues for whatever reasons. They do seem to be reacting as opposed to acting, which again, I mean, this whole conference, I call it conference cannibalism, to me is somewhat off-putting. I understand that it's about money, but it's all off-putting because none of it really makes sense. It would have made more sense had the ACC gotten Oregon and Washington to go along with Cal and Stanford.

At least financially you could make that argument. Yeah, and that was certainly discussed last week, which has been previously reported. But from what I've been told, the presidents didn't necessarily love the idea of Oregon and Washington.

And again, let us remember that the presidents are the ones who are in charge of this decision, right? And so from a presidential perspective, Cal and Stanford, that looks really appealing for a lot of schools in the ACC, right? I mean, this is a conference that has a lot of elite prestigious academic institutions that feel very like-minded with Cal and Stanford from an academic perspective. So you have that in the ACC, but you've also got the football schools in the ACC who are like, what are we doing here? Cal and Stanford? That adds nothing to us and for us from a financial perspective because there's zero financial gain in adding Cal and Stanford.

And even if they had taken all four, the financial gain would have been limited, let us just say, and it would have increased the travel cost. So again, you're seeing a conference that has this push-pull dynamic that doesn't have one mindset where everybody is all thinking the exact same thing. You might find that in perhaps the SEC. That's never been the way the ACC has operated since they decided to expand to Florida State, right? This is a basketball conference that made a decision for football and every other decision has been football-based. This one absolutely has to be football-based. The problem is Cal and Stanford don't add anything to football and that's what should be the number one priority here. Right.

Andrea Adelson from ESPN is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. And again, I say this without hesitation, I am no fan of the ACC having two, four, however many teams on the Pacific Ocean as part of the league. Because at some point we have, like, who needs guardrails? The conference commissioners need guardrails.

We don't need guardrails on what the kids can earn. We need what guardrails and what the commissioners can do. But this is where we are. And I don't, do we have different types of presidents than exist in other conferences? Big Ten, do they not care about the stuff that ACC presidents?

And I realize it's just a smaller number blocking this. If they have 12, yes, they need 12. If they're at 10 or whatever, we obviously have some people who are looking at this from a football perspective. But do we have just different presidents than they have in the other conferences? Well, I just think that the other conferences, if we're talking about the Big Ten, the SEC are playing from a position of strength, right? They're playing from a position where we have all the power in this situation to determine who and what we want to bring in.

Because people are going to say yes to us and that increases our value and that increases a lot of things across the board beyond just money, right? From a recruiting perspective, from lots of different perspectives. In the ACC, because the situation has been far more reactive than proactive, it is far more difficult to make decisions about what your future is going to look like when you had these two other conferences hanging out there that may one day take your members away from you. Which is obviously a possibility based on the way Florida State has been talking over the last six months, right? So I just think it's a completely different dynamic and the fact is that within the ACC, while there has been more investment in football, not every school is as invested in football as Florida State or Clemson. That's a fact and they're never going to be and that is okay, but you also have to recognize and understand that as a conference, it's going to be a lot harder to achieve a consensus on what needs to happen when you do have varied viewpoints across the board. And maybe your institutions that have more sway in the room aren't your football schools.

That's also a little bit problematic, right? So the fact that Notre Dame has a full vote, to me, is extremely problematic. To add Cal and Stanford, when they could easily solve this issue by joining full front as a football member.

It would solve all the issues, yes. So they're the ones that are leading the charge to get Cal and Stanford in when they don't even play football in the ACC and this should be something that protects and helps football. Again, there are a lot of dynamics at play in the ACC that I think you do not find in the Big Ten or the SEC or even in the Big Twelve.

Andrea Adelson from ESPN, before we let you go, I know your phone was just breaking up a little bit there, but I want to get another question and at least if I can. Do we know who the no votes are in terms of, we also have public and private disparity in this league. Like half the league are smaller private schools. Wake and Duke and Boston College don't have a lot of alumni and all that. So that's also an issue that speaks to the diversity of the league in that regard.

But do we know who the no votes are? Experiences are what people love most about travel. With Viator, you can browse and book tours and activities so incredible you'll want to tell your friends. They offer everything from simple tours to extreme adventures and all the niche, interesting stuff in between. Viator has experiences in over 190 countries.

There's something for everyone. Plus Viator's travel experiences have millions of real traveler reviews, so you have the information you need to book the best activities for your trip. Viator lets you keep things flexible.

Use Reserve Now and Pay Later to secure the activities you don't want to miss without being locked in. Whether you want to take a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry, a Miami Bimini Bahamas Day Trip by ferry, or a private guided tour of the Grand Canyon, Viator is for you. Download the Viator app now and use Viator 10 for 10% off your first booking. One app, over 300,000 experiences you'll remember.

Do more with Viator. Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off? Tired of wasting time and money on starvation diets that lead to more frustration and stress? If there was a weight loss solution that could actually work for you, would you try it? Then head to Golo.com. I'm Steve. I lost 138 pounds in nine months on Golo.

I'm Amber. I've lost 128 pounds with Golo. If you're ready to take back control of your life, head to Golo.com now and see how Golo can work for you.

That's Golo.com. My sleep is way better. My inflammation has gone way down. Golo saved my life. I was way overweight. That's what sent me down the path.

I wanted to make sure and live for my kid. I have literally tried everything. I was on the verge of getting gastric bypass surgery and I saw the Golo commercial and it was the last thing I tried because it worked. Join over 2 million people who found a better way to lose weight with Golo. Your healthier and happier life begins at Golo.com. That's Golo.com.

Again, Golo.com. It's a good question because nobody has publicly come out and said whether they're yes or no, but I think we can make educated guesses based on who would be a yes and who would be a no if we're looking at this from a football perspective, which I think the league should be looking for. And there are a bunch of things that have been characterized to myself and my colleague, David Hale. Smaller private academic institutions are probably a yes. The football schools are probably a no. But there are schools in the middle there that are football, basketball, all around schools that have made that investment. And where those schools stand right now is a question. But the other question is there are presidents that want this, but athletic directors who may not necessarily want this. And so you have that difference of opinion as well. What do the presidents want versus what do the ADs want? I can tell you there's a lot more disagreement in the AD room than there is in the president's room right now.

And so that's another dynamic at play as well. Final thing, if this does get across the line, and I sound like this is a transfer window in European football, if this does get across the line, will Florida State applaud? Well, I guess we should ask Florida State that question. I don't really know what Florida State made those statements last week about how they're going to very seriously consider leaving.

A, I don't know where there's a home for them right now. B, if they decide to go and let's say they want to be an independent, which again, I don't know how anybody does that in this climate. But I don't see how they even get out of the ACC in a year's time because of the grant of rights, the exit fee, and all that other stuff that has to be involved. Because we do have this August 15th deadline that's coming up for any school that wants to leave for next season, they have to decide and give notice by then.

I don't know where Florida State is right now in that, but I think for any school that wants to leave within one year's time, getting out in a year is going to be exceptionally difficult. If Florida State wants to pay a half billion dollars to go play in the Big 12 and make the same money that they have been making in the ACC, then roughly, then that's fine. Let them do it. Let them pay a half billion dollars to do that.

Because my estimate is that that's what it would probably cost. So, good for them. Again, it just seems, I think those are idle threats coming out of Tallahassee, but that just could be me being cynical. You are not a cynical person, Andrea Adelson. I appreciate your time at AAdelsonESBN on X. Thank you. I'll talk to you again. Alright, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Thank you.