ACC Expansion And Divisional Realignment
by AParker on Sep 19, 2011 8:53 AM EDT
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With the ACC currently getting ready to go through the expansion process of redoing schedules, divisions and the sort, what does the BC Interruption community feel about the upcoming division being? I do feel that the ACC might be going 16 teams eventually, but I think it will be 14 teams for at least two seasons. If this is the case, then the ACC will need to redo the conference divisional make up, possibly scuttling the Atlantic and Coastal set up as having Boston College and Syracuse in one division will hurt be two long roads trip for teams in the Atlantic. This would also be a pain for teams in the Coastal to travel all the way up and down the Atlantic seaboard as well. Not to mention with the two new teams added, traditional rivalries would need to get some love.
My thought with how the ACC should switch it up: go to 7 teams North/South Divisions at the NC/VA border, with one catch:
ACC North: Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami
ACC South: North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State
This conference split allows for regional rivalries, keeping the ACC "bus league" in tact. It also does allows for Miami to be back involved with its old rivals, and keeps each team playing one game in/against against the fertile talent recruitment area of Florida. A nine game conference schedule should also be put in place to kill off so many of those god awful I-AA games. The cross-divisional rivals could be:
-- North Carolina vs. Virginia
-- Georgia Tech vs. Virginia Tech
-- Florida State vs. Miami
-- Duke vs. Maryland
-- Wake Forest vs. Syracuse
-- Clemson vs. Boston College
-- N.C. State vs. Pittsburgh
This is a guess, as I think Maryland could also end up playing NCSU and Clemson vs Pitt. This also renews the BC-Miami series. So BCI, does this thought stream look good enough for John Swofford to completely avoid it? How would you feel about getting the BC-Miami series back? And do we do any other tweaking to fix the rest of it?
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Agreed
ACC North: Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami
ACC South: Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, N.C. State
Best configuration imo
Editor, BC Interruption
subtraction by addition
Will you like the north/south set up when uconn and rutgers join the north and Maryland or Virginia join to the south. Unlike the last expansion to twelve, I think tobacco road wants two more teams added (from the north), so that eight of the nine pre expansion teams can be in the same division.
Adding syracuse and pitt is just the first step in BC essentially moving back to the Big East. Those BC road trips to Clemson won’t happen every other year, they’ll happen once every eight or sixteen years.
by css01 on Sep 19, 2011 9:48 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I don’t believe expansion for expansion’s sake to 16 is inevitable. UConn and Rutgers may join the fold eventually, but I believe the conference will stay at 14 for a while and wait for more valuable programs.
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by Brian Favat on Sep 19, 2011 10:03 AM EDT up reply actions
But it’s not expansion for the sake of expansion. I think Tobacco Road has buyers remorse, and this let’s them have their own division with eight of the nine old pre-expansion teams back together again.
16 team conferences are essentially two independent 8 team conferences. This is the best way for the pre-2004 ACC to return.
by css01 on Sep 19, 2011 10:12 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
It is expansion for the sake of expansion if Rutgers and UConn don’t add more value than the per-team valuation of the next TV contract. Else everyone else is poorer for it. Duke and Maryland want to get to 16 eventually, but it’s not a given that those two teams will be UConn and Rutgers.
Editor, BC Interruption
by Brian Favat on Sep 19, 2011 10:15 AM EDT up reply actions
As pathetic as it really is, UMass needs UConn and Rutgers to get no-offered by the ACC or B1G so they can join us in the MAC and A-10 hoops.
by Go Minutemen on Sep 19, 2011 10:21 AM EDT up reply actions
How would you feel about getting the BC-Miami series back?
Love it. Also you have some great cross-divisional permanent rivalries there.
Obviously if you don’t have the South’s oldest rivalry (Virginia-North Carolina) on the schedule every year, any divisional setup is a nonstarter.
BC-Clemson has been a great series since BC moved over to the ACC.
Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech … Florida State and Miami … check.
Pitt and Maryland share a border.
Looks good to me.
Editor, BC Interruption
Fine by me
I like Clemson in the ACC South, and on that note, it gets rid of the rather odd-sounding division names. It does a good job of preserving traditional games (Georgia Tech, Florida State, the Textile Bowl) and makes a lot of geographical sense. I’m sure Swofford will be proud to ignore it.
I wonder how a Clemson-Pitt rivalry would turn out?
Clemson/Atlanta Braves/Carolina Panthers fan, and inventor of the iChop, 5/31/10
Since it was always said that Miami to FSU was just as far as BC to Maryland, I guess that makes Miami a huge Geographic outlier now.
That proposed configuration is the best for 11 schools, but I wonder how Maryland would feel about losing all their original ACC opponents. Maybe they’d be happy, maybe Edsall would love it, but I’m guessing Gary Williams would make a big deal of it.
You couldn’t use the divisions for basketball. Could use them for scheduling purposes (to assure two Duke-Carolina games a year) but both school would flip if we moved to the SEC’s basketball divisional format and they are both on the same side.
Editor, BC Interruption
Looks like the Big East all over again
I really like where you are going with this, but it basically takes the New ACC and splits it into the Old Big East and Old ACC, with a couple of exceptions. I would rather see more of a mix in the 2 divisions. Unfortunately, I think the only way to do that would be to break-up the Carolina Mafia.
The worst thing that happened in last expansion
Was breaking up the Tobacco road series. Mostly because it meant Clemson got shafted on playing NCSU for our Textile Basketball & Baseball games. I know that this seems biased, but getting them into one division (or at 16 one pod) would be a huge deal for the ACC. The major downside to my thoughts on the divisions is the loss of Maryland and UVA to the North. THose are huge loses.
Don't give up, don't ever give up ~ Jim Valvano
Like I said, killing the South’s oldest rivalry is a nonstarter with any ACC realignment scenario.
Editor, BC Interruption
by Brian Favat on Sep 19, 2011 11:35 AM EDT up reply actions
An alternative realignmente plan ...
I don’t think just basing things on geography will work as well as other options. Consider the possibility of two 7-team divisions in which each team plays:
- six games against its own division (one against every team)
- one “rivalry game” against one school from the other division
- two rotating games against the other division
With that in mind, imagine these football divisions:
ACC 1: Boston College, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami
ACC 2: Syracuse, Pittsburgh, VA Tech, NC State, Wake Forest, Clemson, Florida State
These would be the inter-division rivalries:
- BC — Syracuse
- Maryland — Pittsburgh
- Virginia — Virginia Tech
- North Carolina — NC State
- Duke — Wake Forest
- Georgia Tech — Clemson
- Florida State — Miami
Each school would visit each “region” of the ACC every year (good for recruiting, exposure, etc.):
- Florida
- south (GA / SC)
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- mid-Atlantic (MD / PA)
- north (NY / MA)
Most (hopefully all?) major rivalries would be preserved or renewed.
Different divisions might make more sense for other sports, but I think this could work for football.
The alternative realignment plan sux
First off, splitting up Tobacco Road is a bad idea. This helps with recruiting, but the problem with that is the best recruiting is in Florida and you can’t get everyone guaranteed to visit there every year anyway.
The best way to preserve the rivalries is to go back to the old ACC/Big East splits.
BTW, these divisions are only needed for football. Any other sport is a non-issue.
Maryland has very little Rivarly with Duke
in football. give us NCState or UVA
I like Turtles!
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Realignment
So how does the southernmost school in the conference wind up in the Northern Division? You can’t get any farther south than Miami.
Geographically most southern, culturally in line with the northern schools (and alumni base predominantly northern).
I love how the ACC had no choice but to put FSU and Miami in opposite divisions back in 2003 to set up the possibility of an ACCCG rematch, and now Noles fans want to quickly move to a north/south format where FSU and Miami would only play once a year.
These times, they are a’changin.
Editor, BC Interruption
Switch Wake Forest with Miami...
…and it could work. BC-Miami could be a guaranteed crossover game alongside Wake-Duke, UVa-UNC, VTech-FSU, Maryland-Clemson, Syracuse-NCSU and Pitt-GTech.
West Virginia In The ACC---NEVER
Thats right Football Fans, etc. Never Will It Happen. I have read every spin that could be spun on this issue of West Virginia Becoming A Member Of The ACC. Now here is the real reason. TRAITORS! YES YOU READ IT HERE! TRAITORS ! THEY ARE NOT WANTED AND NEVER WILL BE DUE TO THEIR ACTS OF TREASON DURING THE CIVIL WAR. And the powers that be in the ACC have never and will not ever forgive them for it! You can look it up, its in the history books!
by JoeFriday77 on Sep 21, 2011 12:07 AM EDT reply actions 3 recs
Ya know,
Miami is about as much of an “outpost” in the ACC as Boston College, as far as travel time and costs …
If you make this …
ACC North: Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami
… into a division, how on earth is this fair to Miami? They’d have to spend much more on travel costs than any other school.
I really don't think Miami minds, honestly.
You are getting on a plane wherever you go at Miami. Even Tallahassee is an 8 hour drive from Miami.
They certainly didn’t seem to mind in the Big East. Culturally seems to fit with the Northern schools. Large alumni population in the Northeast, too.
Editor, BC Interruption
I would just keep it simple. Add Syracuse to the Coastal division and assign them BC as a rival and put Pitt in the Atlantic, with BC, and assign them VT as a rival.
by Rogers Harrison on Sep 25, 2011 8:59 PM EDT reply actions
I think the ACC will go simple, but place Syracuse in the Atlantic and Pitt in the Coastal. Have them play one another as each other’s cross-divisional rival.
Everything else stays the same.
Editor, BC Interruption
The current two division setup is a disaster
Please just blow it up and start over, take notes from the SEC and the Pac-X.
The SEC and PAC maintain a two divisional setup … based on geography?
There’s no logical geographic split that keep Tobacco Road + Wake together.
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