Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is one of the major college sports conferences in the United States. It was formed in 1953 by a group of seven colleges and universities that left the Southern Conference.
Members
[change | change source]In the 2023–24 school year, the only sport in which the conference's members were split into groups—the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions—was baseball. The Atlantic–Coastal split was also used in football before the 2023 season. The ACC has not announced whether a divisional split will continue in 2024–25 after the arrival of two new baseball members (California and Stanford; the other 2024 arrival, SMU, does not have a baseball team).
Notre Dame does not play football in the ACC; in that sport, it remains an "independent" school that does not play in a conference. However, it has agreed to play five of its 12 regular-season games each year against other ACC schools. Syracuse does not have a baseball team; Notre Dame takes its place in the Atlantic Division for that sport.
Amid a major NCAA conference realignment in the early 2020s, the ACC announced on September 1, 2023 that it would add three new members for the 2024–25 school year. Two left the Pac-12 Conference, which effectively folded at the end of the 2023–24 school year, and the other left the American Athletic Conference.[1]
- ↑ The SMU campus is actually located in University Park, a separate city within the Dallas city limits. All locations in University Park have a Dallas mailing address.
- ↑ Virginia joined the ACC in December 1953, after the conference's first football season but before the first basketball season.
Former members
[change | change source]Two schools have left the ACC:
School | Location | Founded | Type (affiliation) |
Joined | Left | Current conference | Nickname |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
University of Maryland, College Park | College Park, Maryland | 1801 | Public | 1953 | 2014 | Big Ten Conference | Terrapins |
University of South Carolina | Columbia, South Carolina | 1801 | Public | 1953 | 1971 | Southeastern Conference | Gamecocks |
Sports
[change | change source]As of the 2024–25 school year, the ACC holds championships in 28 sports. Thirteen of these are men's sports and 15 are women's sports. One sport, fencing, has separate ACC men's and women's team championships, but has a single coeducational (men's and women's) NCAA team championship.
- Baseball (men only)
- Basketball (both)
- Cross country (both)
- Fencing (coeducational)
- Field hockey (women only)
- Football (men only)
- Golf (both)
- Gymnastics (women only)
- Lacrosse (both)
- Rowing (women only)
- Soccer (both)
- Softball (women only)
- Swimming and diving (both)
- Tennis (both)
- Track and field, indoor (both)
- Track and field, outdoor (both)
- Volleyball (women only)
- Wrestling (men only)
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "The Atlantic Coast Conference Welcomes the University of California, Berkeley, Southern Methodist University and Stanford University as New Members" (Press release). Atlantic Coast Conference. September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
- "Atlantic Coast Conference". theacc.com. Retrieved 2014-06-29.