Don't Expect ACC Football Division Realignment Any Time Soon

The football coaches of the ACC are in the midst of their annual meetings, and talk of divisional realignment is dead, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

For whatever reason, the question of whether to realign the ACC's Atlantic and Coastal divisions - whose setup is mostly a relic of a time when the ACC dreamed of frequent Miami vs. Florida State title games - is dead. As BC fans, we find this disappointing.

The competitive balance question is not something to get too bogged down in, because these things are cyclical; you can point to FSU and Clemson blocking off lower-tier Atlantic programs from finding success, but it wasn't that long ago that those two were down and BC and Wake were winning a lot of games in the Atlantic Division. On the flip side, the Coastal has been wide open for newcomers like Duke and Georgia Tech, but that all changes if Virginia Tech or Miami go on a dominant run.

Where this gets disappointing from a BC perspective is in the variety of opponents at Alumni Stadium and the Coastal teams we'd like to see more often.

Unless the schedule format changes, we're going to get Atlantic teams and VT every year, but Coastal teams once every 6 years and at home once every 12 (!) years. This means a vast majority of BC students will pass through without seeing BC play Miami or Pittsburgh, two programs BC has a deep history with - not to mention, not seeing other programs like GT, UNC or UVA just for variety's sake.

While no disrespect is meant toward these programs, it's gotten a bit tedious at this point to play teams like NC State and Wake every year while never getting to mix it up with some of the other programs we see less often.

Divisional realignment could have given  BC more games against traditional foes Miami and Pitt, while adding some much needed variety to the home slate. Now, we're just going to have to hope for a change in the scheduling format.