New ACC Schedule Format Reveal

Do you wish that Clemson was kept as a protected annual rival?

  • Yes

    Votes: 55 40.1%
  • No

    Votes: 36 26.3%
  • Indifferent

    Votes: 46 33.6%

  • Total voters
    137

forensicbuzz

Helluva Engineer
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North Shore, Chicago
Texas A&M has been in the SEC since 2012 and has only played UGA once since then, and it was in Athens. There still isn’t even a game scheduled for College Station yet, and the SEC schedule is already set for 2024. UGA will go at least 14 seasons without a trip to a conference opponent’s place, and one of the better programs in the conference at that. Conferences over 12 teams are just way too big IMO. The disparity in schedules is too large, and teams in the same conference can go 6+ years without playing each other. Even in the NFL, a 32 team league, each team can only go 4 years MAX without seeing any one team in the regular season.

If a 4 year player can go their entire career and not face every team in their conference at least once, it’s a flawed system. Ideally every 4 year senior would get at least 1 home game and 1 away game for every other team in the conference. 2 divisions with 6 teams each was perfect to me. The new free-for-all scheduling with no divisional tie-in to the conference championship game is dumb to me. There’s a decent possibility with 17 teams that the 2 teams playing in the conference championship game won’t even have a singular shared opponent. That’s stupid.
Interesting take.

Georgia Tech was a chartered member and in the SEC for 31 seasons. In those 31 seasons we NEVER played Mississippi State and only played Ole Miss once (1946). Both of those schools were also chartered members of the SEC and conference foes the entire 31 seasons we were there. Like now, the reason was money.
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,454
It seems odd to me that Tech didn't ask for Clemson as a permanent rival, if in fact that's the case.
Long standing rivalry that has produced some of the most memorable games in Tech football history and puts more fans in the stands than any other game except Ugag.
You think Clemson asked for GT as a protected rival - nope!
 

iceeater1969

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,959
Somewhere an engr is looking at this schedule noting that the small mumber of coastal teams is replaced by we 16 different teams we play on rotation. They remember that in the coastal that teams got better at defending the spread option. The also remember that cross conference teams that had not seen the SO lost everygame.

So, does the new schedule sets up better for the old offense?

Oh, cut blocking is illegal
Never mind.
.
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,454
Those aren't the same people complaining. Some even want to drop Ugag.

Change is inevitable, and that's fine. "The more things change, the more they stay the same", as they say in France. But tradition is a very important part of college football, and I don't think it's wise to throw traditions, especially perennial rivalries right down the road, over so easily. We have so few of them left, and the current upheavals are destroying the few that remain.

We have now one left. If we stop playing Ugag, we'll have none.
Our Duke rivalry has more history than Clemson. Why aren't people complaining we don't have them as a protected rivalry?
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,454
Nobody cares about duke fb, not even duke
Exactly - a rivalry has to be competitive to matter. You think UGA views GT as anything more than an annual easy win! They only care when we beat them which is extremely. Heck we rarely compete. They out number our fans in BDS. Not a real rivalry anymore regardless of how much GT fans dispise UGA.
 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,807
Do we know that? I'm really just talking about Clemson. Did they not ask, or did they ask, and we said, "no"? Or did we ask, and they said, "no"? What specifically do we know about this process?

I’m making some guesses.


Clemson only got one permanent rival—FSU. This looks like a matchup set up for ESPN. Clemson lost a bunch of historical matchups. The NCST one hurts them too.

If it weren’t for FSU being in Ireland, our home slate would be really good. NCST should bring fans. It’s the game in Ireland that doesn’t line up well for us

The ACC has 17 teams, with two in the Bay Area and one in TX. The constraints are
  • Get good matchups
  • Don’t have teams that never play each other
  • Don’t fly the east coast teams across the country too much
  • Find a schedule that works for 17 teams and part of Notre Dame
If everyone could have gotten one rivalry game, they’d have done that—but with 17 teams it was going to be uneven. It is uneven. So, what you need to do is make sure GT and Louisville get enough marquee games.

Having some teams with three rivalry games is silly. That’s giving up scheduling flexibility the ACC needs.

As for what happened in the room none of us were in. Either the ACC tried to generate 12 years of schedules where everyone played at least once, and couldn’t with the constraints, or they ran into a ton of other issues.

We have a prime number of teams. With 15 teams we could have 3 5-team pods or 5 3-team pods. With 16, we could have 4 4-team pods. With 17, you’re coming out uneven. If you have a 6, a 6, and a 5, you’ll never play a bunch of teams for ages. You could do 5 3-team pods and 1 2-team pod. Still, scheduling is going to be a mess

The distribution for post season is still uneven (I believe). So, one of Batt’s primary goals is going to be getting us bowl eligible. If he views Clemson as a loss 70% of the time (and it’s been worse than that for a while), are you going to fight for that game?
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,454
It died just because our record against them since then is 2-11? Rivalries don't die that easily. And we have a pretty decent shot at beating them this year.
They do for the team that beats the other team down like they are a HS team. Clemson fans enjoy a short trip to Atlanta to watch their team dominate an inferior team. Until GT gets competitive we are not a rival for opposing fans.
 

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
7,060
They do for the team that beats the other team down like they are a HS team. Clemson fans enjoy a short trip to Atlanta to watch their team dominate an inferior team. Until GT gets competitive we are not a rival for opposing fans.
I repeat: We have a pretty decent shot at beating them this year.
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,454
I’m making some guesses.


Clemson only got one permanent rival—FSU. This looks like a matchup set up for ESPN. Clemson lost a bunch of historical matchups. The NCST one hurts them too.

If it weren’t for FSU being in Ireland, our home slate would be really good. NCST should bring fans. It’s the game in Ireland that doesn’t line up well for us

The ACC has 17 teams, with two in the Bay Area and one in TX. The constraints are
  • Get good matchups
  • Don’t have teams that never play each other
  • Don’t fly the east coast teams across the country too much
  • Find a schedule that works for 17 teams and part of Notre Dame
If everyone could have gotten one rivalry game, they’d have done that—but with 17 teams it was going to be uneven. It is uneven. So, what you need to do is make sure GT and Louisville get enough marquee games.

Having some teams with three rivalry games is silly. That’s giving up scheduling flexibility the ACC needs.

As for what happened in the room none of us were in. Either the ACC tried to generate 12 years of schedules where everyone played at least once, and couldn’t with the constraints, or they ran into a ton of other issues.

We have a prime number of teams. With 15 teams we could have 3 5-team pods or 5 3-team pods. With 16, we could have 4 4-team pods. With 17, you’re coming out uneven. If you have a 6, a 6, and a 5, you’ll never play a bunch of teams for ages. You could do 5 3-team pods and 1 2-team pod. Still, scheduling is going to be a mess
You forgot the most important factor. Compelling TV games. That drives the Conference revenue.
 

305jacket

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
440
I have very mixed feelings about no protected rival.

I do like the flexibility that the schedule can give us, it means the stars could line up one magical year with no big dogs and a competitive team.

I don't like that we faced Clemson every year for the best their program has ever been, and now when they are showing weakness, we take them off the schedule. Lets make sure we take advantage in 2 weeks and win that game.

I am worried about the BDS home schedule next year but that should be better in the future.

Overall the ACC is in a very tough position to make 17 schools happy, don't envy their position. Lets just beat whoever we line up against each week.
 

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
7,060
I’m making some guesses.


Clemson only got one permanent rival—FSU. This looks like a matchup set up for ESPN. Clemson lost a bunch of historical matchups. The NCST one hurts them too.

If it weren’t for FSU being in Ireland, our home slate would be really good. NCST should bring fans. It’s the game in Ireland that doesn’t line up well for us

The ACC has 17 teams, with two in the Bay Area and one in TX. The constraints are
  • Get good matchups
  • Don’t have teams that never play each other
  • Don’t fly the east coast teams across the country too much
  • Find a schedule that works for 17 teams and part of Notre Dame
If everyone could have gotten one rivalry game, they’d have done that—but with 17 teams it was going to be uneven. It is uneven. So, what you need to do is make sure GT and Louisville get enough marquee games.

Having some teams with three rivalry games is silly. That’s giving up scheduling flexibility the ACC needs.

As for what happened in the room none of us were in. Either the ACC tried to generate 12 years of schedules where everyone played at least once, and couldn’t with the constraints, or they ran into a ton of other issues.

We have a prime number of teams. With 15 teams we could have 3 5-team pods or 5 3-team pods. With 16, we could have 4 4-team pods. With 17, you’re coming out uneven. If you have a 6, a 6, and a 5, you’ll never play a bunch of teams for ages. You could do 5 3-team pods and 1 2-team pod. Still, scheduling is going to be a mess

The distribution for post season is still uneven (I believe). So, one of Batt’s primary goals is going to be getting us bowl eligible. If he views Clemson as a loss 70% of the time (and it’s been worse than that for a while), are you going to fight for that game?
Having no rivalries is sillier that having three. I think they could work in one rival. We did have one, until they tossed it.
What kind of conference is it, when you can't even keep one traditional rival on the schedule?
 

RonJohn

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,530
We have a prime number of teams. With 15 teams we could have 3 5-team pods or 5 3-team pods. With 16, we could have 4 4-team pods. With 17, you’re coming out uneven. If you have a 6, a 6, and a 5, you’ll never play a bunch of teams for ages. You could do 5 3-team pods and 1 2-team pod. Still, scheduling is going to be a mess
The math for 17 teams works perfectly. You have 16 opponents. Play 8 each year. Each team would play every other team at home and away in four years.

The problem isn't the math. The problem is keeping everyone happy with protected rivalries and limited travel.
 
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