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ACC Round-up: Cross-country travel “unsettling” for new ACC teams

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – DECEMBER 2: The ACC logo is shown on a structure following the ACC Championship between the Florida State Seminoles and the Louisville Cardinals at Bank of America Stadium on December 2, 2023 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – DECEMBER 2: The ACC logo is shown on a structure following the ACC Championship between the Florida State Seminoles and the Louisville Cardinals at Bank of America Stadium on December 2, 2023 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Stanford and California are ready for the challenges that will come with cross-country travel for football games in their new Atlantic Coast Conference home this fall. The schools join SMU as new arrivals to the league. They landed in the ACC after the Pac-12 disintegrated as a power conference with teams leaving for other leagues. Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza called it a “scary” time while Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels called it “unsettling.” The plan for the ACC west-coast members is to travel a day earlier for those road games for extra time to prepare in the new time zone.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Pittsburgh safety Donovan McMillon said his experience as a wrestler still impacts how he plays football. McMillon led Pitt with 105 tackles last season, the most for a Pitt defender since 2015. He compared tackling in 1-on-1 situations to using angles and getting leverage while tussling with a foe on the wrestling mat. McMillon started wrestling when he was 5 and was a high-school standout. He started his college career at Florida before returning to his home state to play for the Panthers.

UNDATED (AP) — An attorney for the defendants tells The Associated Press the full settlement agreement of antitrust lawsuits involving the NCAA and college sports’ wealthiest conferences is expected to be filed with a federal court by Friday. Seattle-based attorney Steve Berman says just a few details remain to be worked out. The NCAA along with the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference agreed on May 23 to the framework of a $2.77 billion settlement of multiple antitrust lawsuits that challenged limits on college athlete compensation. The settlement includes a plan to allow schools to pay athletes.

UNDATED (AP) — More than a decade ago, college sports video games were identified as an entry point to challenge NCAA rules that prevented college athletes from being compensated. The lawsuits led to the games going away as the NCAA and college sports leaders tried to defend amateurism. Now the games are back. And not only can college athletes be compensated for being included in the games, a model is in the works that will allow schools to share millions in revenue with them.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA has announced the semifinals and championship game of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament will return to Indianapolis in 2025. The games will be played in Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus. The semifinals are March 31 and the title game April 2. First- and second-round games and quarterfinals will continue to be played at campus sites. The NCAA created the 32-team WBIT as part of its response to an independent 2021 gender-equity report that found there were longstanding disparities between men’s and women’s postseason opportunities. Illinois won the inaugural tournament, beating Villanova 71-57 in March.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Commissioner Jim Phillips was eager to tout the financial gains of the Atlantic Coast Conference as it enters the 2024 season. He also said the league would fight “as long as it takes” against lawsuits from member schools Florida state and Clemson over the league’s ability to charge hundreds of millions of dollars for leaving the league. Phillips told The Associated Press that the league is “better than the narrative that it’s geting right now.” That comes as the league adds California, Stanford and SMU in expansion for this fall.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Coach Rhett Lashlee isn’t naive about the huge challenge facing Southern Methodist as his team transitions to the Atlantic Coast Conference this season. But that hasn’t dampened his level of optimism. He called it a jump, like moving up in weight class. Lashlee also said it will allow the Mustangs an opportunity to see where their program stands. SMU is coming off an 11-3 season and an American Athletic Conference championship win over Tulane, earning a trip to the Fenway Bowl. But Lashlee acknowledged that facing an elite level of competition “week in and week out” will be this team’s biggest challenge.