Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor (33) in action against California during an NCAA college football game in Berkeley, Calif., Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
(KRON) — The Bay Area’s two Pac-12 schools, Cal and Stanford, both announced Friday that they are moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) starting in the 2024-25 academic year. Berkeley and Stanford aren’t exactly located on the “Atlantic Coast.”
Some in opposition to these California schools joining the ACC cite the long and grueling travel having to go coast to coast to compete in sporting events. Even the closest ACC school is farther than what Cal or Stanford had to travel for any Pac-12 conference game.
How far is the farthest ACC school from Cal and Stanford?
The answer is Boston College at over 3,000 miles away from both Bay Area schools.
- Berkeley to Boston College: 3,085 miles
- Stanford to Boston College: 3,126 miles
As members of the Pac-12, the farthest Cal and Stanford had to travel is approximately 1,260 miles to the University of Colorado in Boulder. Berkeley to Boulder is about 1,243 miles. Stanford to Boulder is 1,286 miles.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ acknowledged the potentially tough travel for the student-athletes. The university will be trying to minimize the amount of cross-country trips they will need to make.
“We’re working very very hard on mitigating the travel impacts on those sports like softball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, which typically travel to a campus and play two or three games a week,” Christ said during a virtual press conference Friday morning.
In the past, for example, a number of Cal’s teams would play nonconference games on the East Coast.
The plan is for them to make two trips to the East Coast for ACC games, Cal Director of Athletics John Knowlton said. Non-conference games will be planned to be played much closer to the Bay Area.
If needed to travel to the East Coast, Knowlton says the teams will try to schedule those games around winter break, so academics will not be impacted.
Could we see a Stanford-USC or a Cal-UCLA non-conference football game in the future?
Knowlton said “everything is on the table” when it comes to scheduling in the non-conference, potentially against what will be former Pac-12 schools like USC and UCLA.
Per Knowlton, the non-ACC sports will be beach volleyball, men’s rowing, men’s gymnastics, rugby, men’s and women’s water polo.
