| Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Established | 1953 |
| Association | NCAA |
| Division | Division I FBS |
| Members | 18 (17 for football) |
| Sports fielded | 28[1] (men's: 13; women's: 15) |
| Region | South Atlantic/Northeast |
| Headquarters | Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Commissioner | Jim Phillips (since 2021) |
| Website | http://www.theacc.com |
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its fifteen member universities.
The ACC is considered one of the five power conferences and the ACC football champion receives an automatic bid to one of the New Year’s Six bowl games each season. In men’s basketball the league has done well recent years and have won four national championships since 2009 with Duke and North Carolina winning two each since then.
History[]
Commissioners[]
| Name | Term |
|---|---|
| James H. Weaver | 1954–1970 |
| Robert James | 1971–1987 |
| Eugene F. Corrigan | 1987–1997 |
| John Swofford | 1997-2021 |
| Jim Phillips | 2021-present |
Seasons[]
Founding and early expansion[]
The ACC was established on June 14, 1953, when seven members of the Southern Conference left to form their own conference. These seven universities became charter members of the ACC: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest. They left partially due to the Southern Conference's ban on post-season football play that had been initiated in 1951. (Clemson and Maryland had both defied the Southern Conference's bowl rule following the 1951 season and were banned from playing other conference teams in the 1952 season.) After drafting a set of bylaws for the creation of a new league, the seven withdrew from the Southern Conference at the spring meeting on the morning of May 8, 1953, at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina. The bylaws were ratified on June 14, 1953, and the new conference was created. The conference officials indicated a desire to add an eighth member, and candidates mentioned were Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. On December 4, 1953, officials convened in Greensboro, North Carolina, and admitted Virginia, a former Southern Conference charter member that had been independent since 1937, into the conference. Virginia's president Colgate Darden argued fiercely against joining the ACC or any conference, while UVA athletics director Gus Tebell argued in favor. In the end, UVA's Board of Visitors approved joining the ACC by a vote of 6–3.
In 1960, the ACC implemented a minimum SAT score for incoming student-athletes of 750, the first conference to do so. This minimum was raised to 800 in 1964, but was ultimately struck down by a federal court in 1972.
On July 1, 1971, South Carolina left the ACC to become an independent.
1978 and 1991 expansions[]
The ACC operated with seven members until the addition of Georgia Tech from the Metro Conference, announced on April 3, 1978, and taking effect on July 1, 1979, except in football, in which Tech would remain an independent until joining ACC football in 1983. The total number of member schools reached nine with the addition of Florida State, also formerly from the Metro Conference, on July 1, 1991, in non-football sports and July 1, 1992, in football. The additions of those schools marked the first expansions of the conference footprint since 1953, though both schools were still located with the rest of the ACC schools in the South Atlantic States.
2004–2005 expansion[]
See also: 2005 NCAA conference realignment
The ACC added three members from the Big East Conference during the 2005 conference realignment. Initially, the conference targeted Boston College, Miami, and Syracuse. The expansion was controversial, as Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia (and, initially, Virginia Tech) filed lawsuits against the ACC, Miami, and Boston College for allegedly conspiring to weaken the Big East Conference. Then-Virginia governor Mark Warner, who feared Virginia Tech being left behind in a weakened Big East, pressured the administration of the University of Virginia to lobby on behalf of their in-state foe. Eventually Virginia Tech replaced Syracuse in the expansion lineup and ACC expansion was agreed upon. Miami and Virginia Tech joined on July 1, 2004, while Boston College joined on July 1, 2005, as the league's twelfth member and the first from the Northeast.
2010–present[]
2010-2022[]
Further information: 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment
See also: 2010–2013 Big East Conference realignment and 2010–2014 Big Ten Conference realignment
The ACC Hall of Champions opened on March 2, 2011, next to the Greensboro Coliseum arena, making the ACC the second college sports conference to have a hall of fame after the Southern Conference.
On September 17, 2011, Big East Conference members Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh both applied to join the ACC. The two schools were accepted into the conference the following day, once again expanding the conference footprint like previous expansions. Because the Big East intended to hold Pitt and Syracuse to the 27-month notice period required by league bylaws, the most likely entry date into the ACC (barring negotiations) was July 1, 2014. However, in July 2012, the Big East came to an agreement with Syracuse and Pitt that allowed the two schools to leave the Big East on July 1, 2013.
On September 12, 2012, Notre Dame agreed to join the ACC in all conference sports except football and men's ice hockey (as the ACC does not sponsor men's ice hockey; of all other ACC universities, only Boston College sponsors men's ice hockey) as the conference's first member in the Midwestern United States. As part of the agreement, Notre Dame committed to play five football games each season against ACC schools beginning in 2014. On March 12, 2013, Notre Dame and the Big East announced they had reached a settlement allowing Notre Dame to join the ACC effective July 1, 2013.
On November 19, 2012, the University of Maryland's Board of Regents voted to withdraw from the ACC to join the Big Ten Conference effective in 2014. The following week, the Big East's University of Louisville accepted the ACC's invitation to become a full member, replacing Maryland effective July 1, 2014.
The ACC's presidents announced on April 22, 2013, that all 15 schools that would be members of the conference in 2014–15 had signed a grant of media rights (GOR), effective immediately and running through the 2026–27 school year, coinciding with the duration of the conference's then-current TV deal with ESPN. This move essentially prevents the ACC from being a target for other conferences seeking to expand—under the grant, if a school leaves the conference during the contract period, all revenue derived from that school's media rights for home games would belong to the ACC and not the school. The move also left the SEC as the only one of the FBS Power Five conferences without a GOR.
In July 2016, the GOR was extended through the 2035–36 school year, coinciding with the signing of a new 20-year deal with ESPN that would transform the then-current ad hoc ACC Network into a full-fledged network. The new network launched as a digital service in the 2016–17 school year and as a linear network in August 2019.
On August 24, 2021, the ACC formed an alliance with the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences. In 2022, the ACC brought back old rivalries like the Backyard Brawl between the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and the West Virginia University Mountaineers. A friendly rivalry between University of Pittsburgh Panthers and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in memory of the 1956 Sugar Bowl and Bobby Grier, during the last game, actor Anthony Mackie appeared on field to honor Grier and the game.
2024 expansion[]
See also: 2021–2026 NCAA conference realignment
On September 1, 2023, the conference voted to expand and add three new members: California, SMU, and Stanford. The announcement was initially controversial, given the distance between the schools and its current members. SMU joined on July 1, 2024, from the American Athletic Conference, while Cal and Stanford joined the ACC on August 2, 2024, due to the fiscal year of the Pac-12 Conference, their former conference, being different from most athletic conferences.
Teams[]
Present members[]
* = Not a football member
Former members[]
| Team | ACC Tenure |
Conference Team Championships |
Current Conference |
| South Carolina Gamecocks | 1953–1971 | 4 | SEC |
| Maryland Terrapins | 1952-2013 | 11 | Big Ten |
Football division alignment[]
Divisions[]
In 2005, the ACC began divisional play in football. Division leaders compete in a playoff game to determine the ACC championship. The inaugural Championship Game was played on December 3, 2005, in Jacksonville, Florida, at the stadium then known as Alltel Stadium, in which Florida State defeated Virginia Tech to capture its 12th championship since it joined the league in 1992. The 2009 ACC Championship Game was played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida with Georgia Tech defeating Clemson by a score of 39-34.
The ACC is the only NCAA Division I conference whose divisions are not divided geographically (North/South, East/West).[6]
This division structure leads to each team playing the following games:
- Six games within its division (one against each opponent)
- One game against a designated permanent rival from the other division (not necessarily the school's closest traditional rival, even within the conference); this is similar to the SEC setup
- One rotating game against a team in the other division. The cycle rotates twice in a 12-year period
In the table below, each column represents one division. Each team's designated permanent rival is listed in the same row in the opposing column.[7]
| Atlantic Division | Coastal Division |
|---|---|
| Boston College | Virginia Tech |
| Clemson | Georgia Tech |
| Florida State | Miami |
| Louisville | Virginia |
| North Carolina State | North Carolina |
| Syracuse | Pittsburgh |
| Wake Forest | Duke |
National championships[]
Though the NCAA does not determine an official national champion for Division I FBS football, several ACC members have achieved a national championship through the Associated Press, the Coaches Poll, or the Bowl Championship Series.
Football[]
| School | Helms Athletic Foundation | Associated Press | Coaches Poll | Bowl Championship Series | College Football Playoff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clemson | 1981, 2016, 2018 | 1981, 2016, 2018 | 2016, 2018 | ||
| Florida State | 1993, 1999, 2013 | 1993, 1999, 2013 | 1999, 2013 | ||
| Georgia Tech | 1917, 1928, 1952 | 1990 | |||
| SMU | 1981, 1982 | 1935 | |||
| *Maryland | 1953 | 1953 | |||
| Miami | 1983, 1987, 1989,
1991, 2001 |
1983, 1987, 1989,
2001 |
2001 |
- Italics denote championships won before the school joined the ACC.
- Former ACC member.
References[]
- ↑ This Is the ACC. TheACC.com. Archived from the original on 31 December 2010. Retrieved on January 8, 2011.