New ACC Member Faces Grueling Travel Schedule With Over 20,000 Miles Projected

The ACC is set to look a bit different this season thanks to the addition of three new members. Joining the East Coast conference will be SMU from the AAC, and Cal and Stanford from the Pac-12.

SMU officially joined the ACC on July 1. Cal and Stanford will officially join on Aug. 2.

The additions of the former Pac-12 schools give the ACC an uneven 17 members, not to mention making the conference now bi-coastal. Louisville was the last team to join the conference in 2014 out of the AAC.

The ACC was more or less forced into adding the three new schools thanks to the influx of widespread conference realignment, which has all but eliminated regionality from conferences.

For teams from the West Coast that will be playing in a mostly East Coast centralized conference now, they'll be racking up frequent flyer miles. But no team will be tallying them up like Cal.

Cal is already preparing for its initiation into the ACC. On Sunday, the team posted on their X account the field crew painting the new conference logo on the field

Late Kick's Josh Pate had a little fun at the expense of the ACC's new member when he said, "Cal will travel a combined 24,000 miles for their 5 road games this season. The Earth's circumference is 24,900 miles."

Pate, who is known for his tongue-in-cheek demeanor, wasn't too far off.

The University of California football team, which is in Berkeley, California, will make five trips away from their home stadium of California Memorial Stadium. They'll go to Auburn on Sept. 7, Florida State on Sept. 21, Pitt on Oct. 12, Wake Forest on Nov. 8, and SMU on Nov. 30.

Even with just five games on the road, the Golden Bears will still travel a projected 20,660.7 miles, according to Bill Speros at Bookies.com . They'll average 4,132.14 miles per trip and will cross 26 time zones over the course of the season.

Out of the Power Four conferences, Cal still won't travel the most miles for a team this upcoming season. That goes to UCLA, which will transition to the Big Ten this year. They'll travel an estimated 22,048.04 miles, averaging 3,764.67 miles per trip.

Cal begins its 2024 season on Saturday, Aug. 31, at 4 p.m. EST against UC Davis at home, traveling 0 miles.