CFB Academic Selectivity: ACC
An analysis of admit rates and undergrad enrollment for the ACC's 17 member schools.
Housekeeping Updates
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Main Event
I think that the ACC has earned the title of Nerd Faction in the CFB Multiverse. It’s a concept I’m playing around with, so let me explain before passing too much judgement.
The ACC entered the 2024 season with 17 member institutions, up from 14 in the 2023. Those three additions were made largely to keep up pace with the ongoing Realignment Wars but for a while now folks have been questioning the ACC’s football viability. It still fields teams that are undeniably in FBS’ top tier of competition. But the results just haven’t been keeping pace with the rest of the *now* Power 4 conferences. I’ve got a ton more to analyze/write on this topic but the Academic Selectivity series presents us with a first opportunity to start piecing the ACC puzzle together. And the nerd factor is a big deal.
Note: I’ve mostly left Notre Dame out of this CFB Multiverse project. Now that we’re getting into academics as well as this faction (conference) concept the Irish get to make their real entrance. Notre Dame is only a pseudo-member of the ACC but I’ll treat them as a full member here.
The Big Picture
Undergraduate admission rates for 2024 ACC member institutions ranges from 4% to 81%. The size of the schools’ undergrad populations range from 5,447 to 32,936 students. And there’s a ton of context sandwiched in between those bookend stats.
Selectivity Group 1
The two most academically selective schools in the ACC are Stanford and Duke. It’s estimated that Stanford lets in 4% of its undergraduate applicants and that Duke admits around 7% of its applicants. The schools have comparably sized student bodies.
A Geography Wrinkle
One of the big things at play here is how geography factors so heavily into America’s system of institutions and the culture that drives college football. Technically Stanford isn’t an Ivy League institution because it’s located on the West Coast. If you ask a lot of people in regular, non-official conversation, though, they would group Stanford in with the Ivies. If it wasn’t for that pesky detail, the Cardinal would be the only Ivy League program competing consistently at the high levels of college football.
Add another dimension. Stanford decided to take up residency in the ACC after the Pac-12 got torpedoed. So now that they’re on the East Coast for athletics can they be considered an official Ivy now?
Selectivity Group 2
There are five schools in the ACC’s 2nd selectivity group and their admission rates range between 12% and 17%. Those institutions are California (admit rate: 12%, enrollment: 32,479), Notre Dame (admit rate: 13%, enrollment: 8,971), Boston College (admit rate: 16%, enrollment: 9,982), Georgia Tech (admit rate: 16%, enrollment: 18,415) and Virginia (admit rate: 17%, enrollment: 17,444). California joined Stanford in the Pac-12 closeout sale and is now the 3rd most academically selective institution in the ACC. The program is an outlier on this end of the selectivity spectrum and for the conference as a whole when it comes to student enrollment.
Notre Dame, Boston College, Georgia Tech and Virginia all have similar selectivity profiles. The main difference is that Tech and UVA have larger undergrad student bodies.
Selectivity Group 3
Miami (FL), North Carolina, Wake Forest and Florida State make up the ACC’s 3rd selectivity group. Miami (FL) and North Carolina both have estimated admission rates of 19% but North Carolina has more undergrads. Wake Forest is the smallest school in the ACC and has an admit rate of 22%. Florida State is the largest school in the conference and has an admit rate of 25%.
Selectivity Group 4
There are four schools in the ACC’s 4th academic selectivity group. The admission rates range from 38% to 50% for the group. Clemson is on the low end with an admit rate of 38%, NC State has an admit rate of 40%, Syracuse’s admit rate is 42% and Pitt’s estimated admission rate is 50%. This group of institutions are on the larger end when it comes to enrollment and Syracuse has the smallest student body of them.
Selectivity Group 5
Virginia Tech, SMU and Louisville are the schools in the ACC’s 5th academic selectivity group. Virginia Tech is the conference’s third largest school and has a 57% admit rate. SMU admits an estimated 61% of its applicants but it is the ACC’s second smallest institution. Louisville has the highest admit rate in the conference by a wide margin but is in the middle of the pack from an enrollment perspective.
What It Means
The results of the ACC’s academic selectivity analysis provide a lot of indirect explanations about the weird vibes a lot of folks feel about the conference’s future.
Unfortunately for the conference, though, it’s all problematic if you’re keeping up with the Realignment Wars and other big shifts taking place in the CFB system.
The ACC absorbed some very academically selective schools during its most recent round of expansion. Cal and Stanford, two academic heavyweights came over. And while Dallas-Fort Worth’s SMU isn’t the most selective, it only has an undergrad population of around 7,000 students.
The new members largely fit in with the conference’s institutional profile. Think the special Notre Dame relationship and the deep bench of academically selective schools (i.e. Duke, Boston College, Georgia Tech and Virginia) that have been long time ACC members.
And as a nerd who loves college football, I find the ACC’s strategy for weathering the Realignment Wars to be the most exciting. Sure they’re following along the other major factions by blowing up historical geographic boundaries. But it seems like they’re committed to finding a way to make the college and football parts of CFB work together. That’s how you get the Nerd Faction.
It’s an admirable strategy. But there are a lot of signs that their swim against the current of CFB privatization will force at least some of their members to make hard decisions about the sustainability of the football side of the equation.
Welcome to the Multiverse.