Cal to Join ACC Starting in 2024-25

The Golden Bears athletics program will join the Atlantic Coast Conference beginning with the 2024-25 academic year, according to a news release from the athletic department this afternoon.

“Campus leadership prioritized the needs of its student-athletes and what would be required to secure Cal Athletics' long-term stability, while preserving the program's stature and the essential role it plays on the Berkeley campus,” the statement said. Stanford and SMU will also join in that school year, which will bring the ACC to 18 members. UC Berkeley will be exploring measures to minimize the effect additional East coast travel could have on student-athletes.

The ACC sponsors competition in 28 sports; Cal Athletics has teams in 24 of them. Cal has won 103 national championships in its history, while no conference has won more NCAA championships over the last two years than the ACC.

UC Berkeley, which is consistently ranked as one of the top universities in the world, will be joining a conference that features schools with excellent academic reputations. The most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings of "Best Colleges" recognized the ACC as the leader among Power 5 conferences for the 16th consecutive year. With the addition of Cal and Stanford, the ACC now features nine institutions that are members of the prestigious Association of American Universities. - UC Berkeley news release

UC Berkeley will be joining the ACC as a full member in August 2024. The university will receive a full share of all revenues, including media revenue, while contributing back a portion of its media revenue to support and strengthen the conference and its current member institutions. UC Berkeley's membership contribution will taper off until the 10th year, at which point it will begin retaining 100% of its media revenue share. UC Berkeley will also receive a full share of other conference payouts that come from the College Football Playoff, NCAA basketball distribution, bowl games and more.