A Blueprint For Future ACC Football Scheduling
by Brian Favat on Feb 3, 2012 3:30 PM EST
in Boston College Football
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PrintToday's announcement that the ACC will be moving to a nine-game conference schedule, combined with Syracuse and Pittsburgh's placement in the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions, respectively, is great news for the ACC's football schedule makers. This should help ease some current constraints on the annual ACC schedule.
Here's how I'd like to see the annual ACC schedule set up:
Week 1 -- Non-conference games, including 1-2 matchups with the SEC in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Classic
Week 2 -- Non-conference games
Week 3 -- Optional non-conference game for programs that play their regular season finale against a conference opponent (e.g. BC, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland, N.C. State), start of ACC play for the rest (four games, eight teams)
Weeks 4-12 -- Eight conference games over nine weekends (or ten weekends if there are two bye weeks in that particular year), front-loaded with Atlantic vs. Coastal matchups and back-loaded with intra-divisional matchups
Week 13 -- Non-conference game for programs with season-ending, non-conference rivalry games, intra-divisional matchups for BC, Syracuse, Maryland, N.C. State, North Carolina, Duke, Virginia and Virginia Tech
The schedule for the final weekend of the regular season becomes very straight-forward, and will consist of:
Non-Conference
Clemson vs. South Carolina
Florida State vs. Florida
Georgia Tech vs. Georgia
Miami vs. USF
Wake Forest vs. Vanderbilt
Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia
ACC
Atlantic: Boston College vs. Syracuse
Atlantic: Maryland vs. N.C. State
Coastal: North Carolina vs. Duke
Coastal: Virginia vs. Virginia Tech
With nearly half the conference playing a non-conference game the final weekend, this increases the chances that both the Atlantic and Coastal division champs will be decided at least a week early, which will help ticket sales for the ACC Championship Game. This also avoids any Atlantic vs. Coastal division matchups during the final weekend of the regular season, which eliminates the disastrous possibility of a ACC Championship Game rematch the following week.
It's a very cut-and-dry scheduling format that conferences like the Big Ten and Pac-12 have used for a few years now -- three or four non-conference games at the start of the season, eight or nine conference games and a non-conference game towards the end of the season to cater for rivalry games.
While this schedule format works well for the ACC, it's not very good news for Notre Dame. The Irish currently play their Big Ten rivals Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue at the beginning of the year, USC and Stanford towards the end, and fill the rest with games against programs traditional rivals like Syracuse, Pittsburgh and BC (and also games against Maryland, Wake Forest and Miami).
But if you ask me, the conference should be primarily focused on maximizing its own television revenue (setting up the conference schedule) before worrying about fitting Notre Dame onto the schedules of BC, Pitt and Syracuse. With other conferences following this blueprint (i.e. the Big Ten and Pac-12), the ACC scheduling in this way just might be the one development that could threaten Irish independence and force them to join either the Big Ten or the ACC.
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Freaking brilliant article
Could the ACC’s scheduling force what is becoming imminent? ND’s ratings have been plummeting… http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2011/11/ncaa-week-9-notre-dame-ties-nbc-record-low/
G-Mac bitches
BC 2011
For ND, Mich St. and Purdue mean nothing, Michigan is trying to dump them from yearly match-up status and as long as they keep USC and Navy I doubt they came much about losing Stanford on a yearly basis.
Michigan State, Purdue and Stanford don’t mean nothing to Notre Dame. That’s a gross overstatement.
If all three of those programs simultaneously decided to drop Notre Dame from the schedule, the Irish would be forced to play more random BCS AQs and non-AQs like Tulsa and Western Michigan. Matchups that few would tune in to watch (see jdguggs10 link above).
In 2012, Notre Dame plays 3 Big Ten teams, 4 future ACC teams and 2 Pac-12 = 9.
In 2013 … 3 Big Ten, 1 ACC and 3 Pac-12 = 7.
In 2014 … 3 Big Ten, 2 ACC and 3 Pac-12 = 8.
In 2015 … 2 Big Ten, 4 ACC and 2 Pac-12 = 8.
In 2016 … 2 Big Ten, 4 ACC and 2 Pac-12 = 8.
If the ACC joins the Pac-12 and Big Ten with a more rigid scheduling model similar to the one outlined above, that could absolutely cause havoc on Notre Dame’s annual football schedules. Navy is joining the Big East precisely for this reason, as they don’t see a future in CFB independence.
Editor, BC Interruption
I’ve read the link and they’ve had the worst ratings they’ve ever had on NBC which I hope would lead to NBC dropping them and finally forcing them to join the ACC but since that’s unlikely, the next best scenario would be to force their hand in scheduling.
Which is somewhat of a win-win scenario because either ND gets sick of playing cupcakes and having constant 8+ win seasons or if they want a tougher schedule they can always join a conference.
http://detroit.sbnation.com/michigan-wolverines/2011/12/29/2668247/big-ten-pac-12-partnership-michigan-notre-dame/in/2432276
Michigan St. already dropped ND on a yearly basis so how long before Michigan and Purdue do the same?
Standford and USC might do the same considering w/o ND since they have only 2 open spots each to fill.
If they do join the ACC then ND could easily have an OCC schedule of:
Mich/Mich St
USC/Stanford
Navy
My point was that given Notre Dame’s future schedules (above), it’s more or less impossible to schedule those 8-9 programs every year without gutting the schedule in the middle, and scheduling non-AQs and other randos from the SEC, Big 12 and Big East.
There’s ~4 weekends where ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 teams can schedule Notre Dame in any given year in the new world when you consider:
ACC — 9-conference games
Pac-12 — 9+1 conference games (with Big Ten scheduling deal)
Big Ten — 8+1 conference games (with Pac-12 scheduling deal)
Notre Dame will really struggle to schedule the second tier rivals (the BCs, Purdues, Michigan States, Pitts, Syracuses) given the rigidity of the future schedules in the ACC, Pac-12 and Big Ten. They are even going to have to be more flexible scheduling USC (who has just 2 non-conference slots available going forward) and Navy (moving to Big East) over the next few years.
It’s not going to be easy.
Editor, BC Interruption
As well as the GERG vs Weiss cripple-fights turned out for us...
… we’re still nowhere near even a second-tier rival of ND’s. We’ve only played them six times, period. If ND joined the ACC, I expect our pod would be BC – SU – Pitt – ND, but that would be because BC & Pitt both want to always play ND & Syracuse; the Irish don’t care about us (and I don’t think you guys care a lot about Pitt), and vis versa.
Yeah, we don’t care about Pitt. Some history there, but obviously happy that the ACC didn’t screw up BC-Syracuse and Syracuse-Pitt.
Editor, BC Interruption
Let Notre Dame Rot in the Big East
They pre-scheduled all the Big East cupcakes years ago with very favorable home schedules and neutral sites.
16 Teams?
LET ND TWIST!
BC even told them home and home when ND wanted a 2-1?
Enjoy Boise!
Agreed
16 in the ACC is not preferable. I can’t imagine Notre Dame will be happy to go from 0-to-9 game conference schedule that consists:
Boston College
Florida State
Clemson
Maryland
N.C. State
Syracuse
Wake Forest
ACC Coastal protected cross-over … UConn? Rutgers?
Duke / Georgia Tech / Miami / Pittsburgh / Virginia / Virginia Tech
Plus USC, Navy and BYU / Army / Air Force, etc.
The ACC made a very calculated move not to realign the divisions, and the current Atlantic / Coastal set up is not conducive to adding Notre Dame (since BC and SU are separated from GT and Pitt, and a UConn / Rutgers would have to serve as a protected cross-over).
Unless we moved to pods. Which are incredibly dumb.
Editor, BC Interruption
Pods? Pods? Pods?
I lived in one once on South Street!
I am a child of the encompassed shell!
Pods make better humans!
by BCEagle74 on Feb 3, 2012 6:17 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
I agree about keeping atlantic/coastal right now...
But when/if ND and UCONN join the ACC, will ND also be opposed to the Northern teams they would be teamed up with? Syracuse, UCONN, BC, Pitt, Maryland, VT and Virginia with a crossover game versus Miami or something. Would ND go for that?
I ask because two things are very clear to me. 1) The ACC will not expand until ND commits to a conference. 2) If ND commits, the ACC is bringing UCONN in with them.
Does that scenario even work? With two eight team divisions, thats seven inter-division games, and a crossover rival is eight, with only one more alternating game makes nine. That is a lot of commitment. In a 16 team league, for football, are pods the only solution?
G-Mac bitches
BC 2011
Right. Pods are convoluted and not very desirable. I don’t think a 16-team conference is tenable over the long run.
I’m also not convinced that UConn would be added with Notre Dame, though I agree the ACC isn’t expanding unless it includes the Irish. Notre Dame wanted no part of going to East Hartford for games against the Huskies so they just canceled their series with UConn.
I could see ND signing up if it included a trip to NJ/NY and Rutgers. Can’t see them being happy about having to play in a 40k stadium outside of Hartford against a program a little over a dozen years removed from I-AA.
Editor, BC Interruption
Question
I love the idea that the last week of the season every ACC team knows who are they gonna play…
But how consistent are Vandy/Wake and Miami/USF on each other’s schedules? Vandy and Wake seem to play each other every season but Miami and USF? Will they want to do this?
Miami-USF is scheduled as the regular season finale this year (November 24) and in 2013 (November 20). Was the next-to-last game this season (November 19). The Bulls aren’t on the schedule after 2013.
The problem has always been that there are currently an odd number of ACC teams that don’t play non-conference games at the end of the season. BC attempted to solve that with Syracuse, but the Orange opted out of 2011 and 2012 and will now be joining the conference soon, anyway.
Since there are 7 ACC teams without non-conference games on the last weekend, either one team has to finish a week early or one team has to move around a non-conference game. Miami-USF this coming season is the most likely candidate, since I don’t think they’ll move FSU-UF, Clemson-South Carolina or GT-UGA.
If Miami doesn’t want a long-term thing, then maybe North Carolina could play East Carolina, or something.
The goal should be to get an even number of teams that want to play non-conference games on the last weekend, and an even number of Atlantic Division teams and an even number of Coastal Division teams that want to play ACC games to end the season. You don’t want Atlantic vs. Coastal to end the season due to the possibility of an ACCCG rematch the following week, however slight the possibility.
Editor, BC Interruption
Vanderbilt vs. Wake Forest is yearly through 2015. Wake also has Army every year from 2012-15.
Editor, BC Interruption
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