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Atlantic Coast Conference

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

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]

School Location Founded Type
(affiliation)
Nickname Joined
ACC
Boston College Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 1863 Private (Catholic) Eagles 2005
University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California 1868 Public Golden Bears 2024
Clemson University Clemson, South Carolina 1889 Public Tigers 1953
Duke University Durham, North Carolina 1838 Private (nonsectarian) Blue Devils 1953
Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 1851 Public Seminoles 1991
Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) Atlanta, Georgia 1885 Public Yellow Jackets 1979
University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky 1798 Public Cardinals 2014
MiamiUniversity of Miami Coral Gables, Florida 1925 Private (nonsectarian) Hurricanes 2004
North CarolinaUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 1789 Public Tar Heels 1953
North Carolina State University Raleigh, North Carolina 1887 Public Wolfpack 1953
Notre DameUniversity of Notre Dame South Bend, Indiana 1842 Private (Catholic) Fighting Irish 2013
PittsburghUniversity of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1787 State-related Panthers 2013
Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dallas, Texas[a] 1911 Private Mustangs 2024
Stanford University Stanford, California 1891 Private Cardinal 2024
Syracuse University Syracuse, New York 1870 Private (nonsectarian) Orange 2013
VirginiaUniversity of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 1819 Public Cavaliers 1953[b]
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
(Virginia Tech)
Blacksburg, Virginia 1872 Public Hokies 2004
Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, North Carolina 1834 Private (nonsectarian) Demon Deacons 1953
  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.
  2. Virginia joined the ACC in December 1953, after the conference's first football season but before the first basketball season.

Former members

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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

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.

References

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  1. "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.