ACC Realignment Hypothetical: Swapping Boston College and Georgia Tech?
by Brian Favat on May 12, 2011 8:00 AM EDT
in Boston College Football
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PrintYesterday, I bemoaned the absence of the Miami Hurricanes on the Eagles' annual football schedule. There are a few things the conference could do -- adopting a 9-game conference schedule, completely redrawing the divisional lines -- to increase the frequency of BC-Miami games. But neither option is likely to be implemented anytime soon.
Another idea to get more BC-Miami games on the schedule is far less radical. What if the ACC decided to swap Boston College with Georgia Tech, sending BC to the Coastal Division and Georgia Tech to the Atlantic?
The ACC's two divisions would then look like this:
Atlantic: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, N.C. State, Wake Forest
Coastal: Boston College, Duke, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech
At first glance, this seems to be a pretty even trade. Both programs have made two ACC Championship Game appearances. Georgia Tech is 32-16 in six seasons while BC is just two games back at 30-18. This would also decrease travel costs for Atlantic Division teams, with a division that now would only span from Maryland to the Florida panhandle instead of Chestnut Hill to Tallahassee as it does today.
An unintended benefit would be evening up the ACC baseball divisions. Over the last few years, the baseball divisions have become pretty skewed towards the Coastal Division, with Miami, Georgia Tech, Virginia and North Carolina ranking among the best programs in the conference.
The 5-2-1 schedule format would likely remain to ensure a Florida State-Miami regular season matchup. With a BC-GT swap, you'd be moving both the Georgia Tech-Clemson and BC-Virginia Tech rivalries within the division. To replace these cross-divisional rivalries, you could easily establish ones between BC-Clemson and Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech.
Would BC be willing to trade in its "rivalries" with Atlantic Division opponents like Florida State, Maryland and N.C. State to play both Virginia Tech and Miami every year? Thoughts?
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Good idea
BCI,
I really think BC needs to play Miami every year, and having VT in the same division is only icing on the cake. Honestly I wouldn’t miss our games against Maryland, and NCState other than heckling TOB
It returns all of the Big East teams to the same division.
'11: Minimum Goal: Win 10 games again
'10: 7th in offense, 41st in defense. Division Champions. 10-4. (6-3)
'09: 3rd in offense, 107th in defense. 7-6 (4-4)
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It would be like we never left.
Get to play Virginia Tech and Miami annually. Have Syracuse and Notre Dame scheduled for long-term series.
Really not missing anyone worth playing from the old Big East (+ ND) … Rutgers? Pitt? West Virginia? Ha.
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by Brian Favat on May 12, 2011 10:20 AM EDT up reply actions
i would love it
who are GTs biggest rivals, i thought it was Clemson, but I’m not sure if they already play every year cross divisional (if they don’t then maybe this would be great for both of us).
It should be FSU.
'11: Minimum Goal: Win 10 games again
'10: 7th in offense, 41st in defense. Division Champions. 10-4. (6-3)
'09: 3rd in offense, 107th in defense. 7-6 (4-4)
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Clemson is Georgia Tech’s cross-division rival. Moving GT over brings that rivalry within the division.
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by Brian Favat on May 12, 2011 10:21 AM EDT up reply actions
sorry
didn’t see that question was already answered in the post
by bloomsday16 on May 12, 2011 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions
The biggest loss to me, if we switched divisions, would be not having a BC- Clemson game every year. That game has blossomed into a nice little rivalry and makes for exciting football every year (unless there’s thunder….). However, since we already have games every year with cross- division rival Virginia Tech, it wouldn’t be too difficult to schedule a cross- division game with Clemson every year were we in the Coastal.
Looks Good
If we did our cross-division rivalry with Clemson, there aren’t any games I would miss. NC State is interesting now but that will stop once TOB is gone (and all signs point to this being his last year).
I love this idea.
Clemson would be a great crossover, and I really think we are missing out not playing UVA every year as that is a matchup that could really develop over time.
This was what a lot of people at FSU thought should have happened from day 1
I hope they do it – but doubt they will
The lost rivalries
Georgia Tech vs. Florida State is our BC vs. Miami, no?
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by Brian Favat on May 12, 2011 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions
Yep
'11: Minimum Goal: Win 10 games again
'10: 7th in offense, 41st in defense. Division Champions. 10-4. (6-3)
'09: 3rd in offense, 107th in defense. 7-6 (4-4)
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by Bud Elliott on May 13, 2011 10:31 AM EDT up reply actions
Love it.
BC and Clemson then become cross division rivals that play yearly, while GT and VT do the same.
Would be fantastic if it were up to me.
Switch Virginia and BC
I posted this in the other thread last night, but I don’t think it would take much divisional realignment to make everyone happy. Why not just switch Virginia and BC?
This would place UVA-Vtech as cross divisional rivals, so they play every year. Miami-FSU is untouched. All the Big East schools would be in the Coastal and would play each other every year and our new cross divisional "rival" would be Maryland, the only other team that is sort of located in the north.
I don’t see any downside to this alignment other than losing Clemson regularly, but how difficult do we want to make our schedule?
by chicagofire1871 on May 12, 2011 12:33 PM EDT reply actions
Atlantic: Clemson, Florida State, Maryland, N.C. State, Virginia, Wake Forest
Coastal: Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
Cross-divisional rivals: Clemson-GT, FSU-Miami, Duke-Wake, N.C. State-UNC, VT-Virginia, BC-Maryland?
BC-Maryland is kinda a ‘meh’ cross-divisional rivalry considering you could have BC-Clemson every year with a BC-GT swap. Also, a BC-Virginia swap isn’t really an even trade in terms of football. Do we really want to make it easier for FSU to win the Atlantic every year?
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by Brian Favat on May 12, 2011 12:38 PM EDT up reply actions
I believe Virginia has some pretty good rivalries with Georgia Tech and North Carolina, so you’d be losing those as well.
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by Brian Favat on May 12, 2011 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions
We don’t have much of a rivalry with GT. There was a painful not-to-be-spoken-of-again loss in our history, and of course Groh is there now, but aside from that, I don’t think you can call it much of a rivalry.
I’m not sure you want to put all three of the “Big East” teams into one division — it’ll just add to the already popular notion that BC/VT/Miami will never truly integrate into the ACC. If your goal is just to get Miami into your annual schedule, perhaps swap Miami with maybe Maryland or NC State? This puts Miami into the division with FSU, and also allows for an already existent UVA/Maryland border rivalry, or NC State to continue pretending like Carolina cares about them at all. Putting Miami in Atlantic should also help with the football competition on that side of things.
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by Brian J. Leung on May 12, 2011 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions
Placing Miami and Florida State in the same division will never fly. Don’t you know the entire divisional breakdown is set up to ensure a FSU-Miami ACC Championship Game matchup EVERY YEAR?
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by Brian J. Leung on May 12, 2011 1:52 PM EDT up reply actions
If BC was in the Coastal Division all along, we would have likely prevented the Hokies from making the 2007 and 2008 ACC Championship Games … BC won both regular season games.
You have to like that aspect of this plan.
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I always thought if we changed the divisions it would be north/south
it would look like this i think
North- BC, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and either UNC, Duke, Wake or NC state.
I want to play Miami every year and its a great ida
The only predicament is, deciding what to put on....The Big Boy. VAN GUNDY!!!! hahahaha
Now Ronaldo, long way out, WHAT A GOAL! not too far out for him, on a night Manchester United had to score they have scored inside 6 minutes, and its the man from Portugal who has hammered it home and hammered a 1-0 lead for United
I don’t think we’ll ever see a true North / South split given:
1) the North Division would be much weaker in football than the South, and
2) prevents a Florida State-Miami ACC Championship Game matchup … that we are still waiting to materialize
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Any idea on...
what the actual process is to change the divisional alignments? is there even a formal process from the ACC?
The current football schedule runs through 2015, so doubt we would see any change before then.
My guess is they would just put this to a vote at one of the conference meetings.
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