‘I want Cal and Stanford to die on the vine’

A potential rival coach would rather see Cal and Stanford “die on the vine” than have both programs join the ACC, and it looks like his school is backing him up on that.

In a video interview with North Carolina’s WRAL Sports published Monday, UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance explained why he strongly opposes adding the Golden Bears and Cardinal to the conference amid the Pac-12’s ongoing dissolution. The two Bay Area schools have been linked with the athletic conference for most of this month, but Dorrance called the potential additions “horrible for us,” citing financial and recruiting concerns.

“Our budgets aren’t extraordinary as it is, and now we would try to add in flights across the country to play these two schools, which would be incredibly expensive,” Dorrance said. “And then the fact that now we’re exposing the whole country — not that Stanford and Cal don’t have a national recruiting platform, of course they do — but if you put those two schools in the ACC, it’s gonna be so easy for them to recruit nationally. So it’ll just benefit them, in my opinion, not us. 

“We’ve built the best women’s soccer conference in the country, and there’s no way I want to share the glory of our conference with two schools that could do a very good job recruiting against us. And so basically, I want Cal and Stanford to die on the vine.”

Dorrance, who is starting his 47th season with Tar Heels, including 45 as the women’s soccer team head coach, added that it would be better for UNC and the ACC if a school like Stanford struggled to recruit talent.

Wednesday morning, Dorrance then put out a statement saying he has the “utmost respect” for Cal and Stanford and their soccer teams. “They are outstanding institutions with dedicated leaders, committed students and world-class soccer programs and coaches,” he said. “I don’t think conference expansion is in the best interest of Carolina and the ACC at this time, and I trust and respect the decisions” that conference and school leaders “are making on behalf of Carolina and the ACC.”

Competition is the clear driving force for Dorrance. His opposition makes sense, given that Stanford is regularly one of the top women’s soccer programs in the country and has won two national titles (2019 and 2017) since UNC’s last victory in 2012. (UNC has lost in the title game three of the past five seasons, including in 2019 to Stanford.) There would be more than enough juice for a fierce rivalry if the two programs ended up in the same conference.

Both Stanford and Cal have been on the search for a lifeboat out of the sinking Pac-12, and the ACC has consistently looked like the best option for them. But things have been in limbo for a while now: Sports Illustrated reported two weeks ago that Stanford and Cal didn’t have enough member votes to join the ACC, and the two Bay Area schools have been trying to flip at least one vote since. Last week, the Associated Press reported that Stanford informed the ACC that it would accept a greatly reduced or even nonexistent media rights payout for several years.

Stanford and Cal need 12 of the 15 ACC members to approve the conference’s expansion, but only 11 had reportedly agreed to it during straw polls. The four schools apparently opposing the decision are Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina State and, of course, North Carolina.

Unless someone changes their mind, Cal and Stanford might find themselves exactly where Dorrance wants them — on the outside looking in.

This news story has been updated.