Report: ACC to Explore Potentially Adding Cal, Stanford amid Pac-12 Exodus

The growing list of Pac-12 defections may soon have another addition.

ESPN's Pete Thamel appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday and said there's growing buzz that Stanford could be the latest departure, with a shift to the ACC looming:

"Stanford is this vibrant, just teeming athletic department filled with all these world-class people," he noted. "They have great facilities, and they have nowhere to go right now. Could they and maybe Cal end up in some sort of hybrid ACC, or some sort of ACC West Coast wing? I don't know."

Thamel later added that the ACC is indeed exploring the potential additions of Stanford and Cal:

Stanford's potential departure would further usher in what appears to be the possible end of the Pac-12 conference.

USC and UCLA agreed last year to join the Big Ten in 2024. On Friday, Oregon and Washington agreed to make the same change.

And last week, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah agreed to join the Big-12 in 2024. That left only Cal, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State remaining as Pac-12 members.

"They're all, together, independently exploring other options, as somebody told me today," Thamel told McAfee.

It's possible that those four schools could attempt to attract other schools to a new-look Pac-12, though losing conference powerhouses like USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington is going to make the conference less appealing when it comes to media-rights deals. And paying buyout deals for schools like Boise State would become an expensive endeavor that probably wouldn't be affordable, as Thamel noted.

That, in turn, means a school like Stanford might hope to receive an invite to the Big Ten or ACC in an effort to keep the television money rolling in. Otherwise, another option would be to join the Mountain West, although for Stanford and California in particular, less incoming revenue would mean their large sporting departments would likely have to downsize.

The ACC, of course, is in its own state of uncertainty. Florida State "has been exploring all its options for over a year," according to ESPN, but is facing a $120 million exit fee and could be facing a court battle with the conference to free itself from a grant of rights that is supposed to keep the current ACC schools together through 2036's television deal with ESPN.

If Florida State finds a legal path out of the ACC, other schools like Clemson, North Carolina and Virginia could follow suit. Clemson and North Carolina in particular would be valuable additions for conferences like the Big Ten, SEC or Big-12.

In other words, further conference consolidation could be on the horizon. Where that leaves a school like Stanford remains to be seen, but they aren't prominent pieces as it pertains to the college football chessboard. The Pac-12 defections may ultimately cost Stanford quite a bit of money in the long term unless the ACC indeed swoops in.