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

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 collapsed 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^[b]	Mustangs	2024
Stanford University	Stanford, California	1891	Private	Cardinal	2024
Syracuse University	Syracuse, New York	1870	Private (nonsectarian)^[c]	Orange	2013
VirginiaUniversity of Virginia	Charlottesville, Virginia	1819	Public	Cavaliers	1953^[d]
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)	Blacksburg, Virginia	1872	Public	Hokies	2004
Wake Forest University	Winston-Salem, North Carolina	1834	Private (nonsectarian)^[e]	Demon Deacons	1953

↑ 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.
↑ SMU is currently in a legal battle to officially separate itself from the United Methodist Church.
↑ Syracuse is officially nonsectarian, but was founded as a Methodist school and is still loosely affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
↑ Virginia joined the ACC in December 1953, after the conference's first football season but before the first basketball season.
↑ Wake Forest was founded as a Baptist institution. It became officially nonsectarian in 1986, but is still loosely affiliated with the North Carolina branch of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Former members

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

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 had separate ACC men's and women's team championships since the conference reinstated that sport in the 2014–15 school year. At that time, the NCAA held a single coeducational (men's and women's) NCAA team championship. Starting in 2025–26, the NCAA will again hold separate men's and women's team championships in fencing. (It had held separate men's and women's championships from 1982 to 1989.)

Baseball (men only)
Basketball (both)
Cross country (both)
Fencing (both)
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

↑ "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.

[2] 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.

[3] SMU is currently in a legal battle to officially separate itself from the United Methodist Church.

[4] Syracuse is officially nonsectarian, but was founded as a Methodist school and is still loosely affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

[5] Virginia joined the ACC in December 1953, after the conference's first football season but before the first basketball season.

[6] Wake Forest was founded as a Baptist institution. It became officially nonsectarian in 1986, but is still loosely affiliated with the North Carolina branch of the Southern Baptist Convention.

[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.

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