Possible ACC Football Scheduling Changes--Divisions?

[LT 1967]

I was watching the ACC Network a couple of days ago as Mark Packer and Andrea Adelson discussed some general topics concerning ACC football and the CFP. Andrea related some information she received from Dan Radakovich concerning ACC Football scheduling.

There are some discussions going on among ACC administrators concerning adjustments in the ACC Scheduling Format to make the system more Consistent and BALANCED in strength of schedule and to be sure more "BRANDS" play each other. According to Andrea there has also been talk of possibly returning to Divisions. She said that return to Divisions was about 50-50 among the administrators. I assume the ACC would have to add a team in order to return to Divisions.

These are likely very early discussions concerning any changes, but I thought the Swarm members might be interested.

 

[stinger78]

I was watching the ACC Network a couple of days ago as Mark Packer and Andrea Adelson discussed some general topics concerning ACC football and the CFP. Andrea related some information she received from Dan Radakovich concerning ACC Football scheduling.

There are some discussions going on among ACC administrators concerning adjustments in the ACC Scheduling Format to make the system more Consistent and BALANCED in strength of schedule and to be sure more "BRANDS" play each other. According to Andrea there has also been talk of possibly returning to Divisions. She said that return to Divisions was about 50-50 among the administrators. I assume the ACC would have to add a team in order to return to Divisions.

These are likely very early discussions concerning any changes, but I thought the Swarm members might be interested.

Instead of adding a team, could we kick out F$U?

 

[wrmathis]

Go divisions, have a team win their division at 8-4/7-5, go to conference championship and wins and a 9-4/8-5 acc team is in the cfp. Yeah, people would lose their collective **** over that.

Only way that doesn’t happen is if all the other conf chaps are ranked higher. And if the acc runner up happens to be 11-2,12-1 after the conf champ game, do they get in? Would be a very hard sell imo.

 

[stinger78]

In this day and age, just pick the top 2 teams and go for it.

 

[wrmathis]

With how big conferences have gotten, the only way to have “fair & balanced” schedules is not have any permanent opponents. Go to 9 conf games and have it where you play every team every 4 years if not every 2-3.

 

[CEB]

With how big conferences have gotten, the only way to have “fair & balanced” schedules is not have any permanent opponents. Go to 9 conf games and have it where you play every team every 4 years if not every 2-3.

Eliminating permanent opponents would help, but there are just too many teams to establish any kind of balance. We’re just going to have to accept that in some years there is going to be a team that’s good enough to exploit a fortunate schedule. That’s not unique to the ACC, either (see Texas, PSU, IU this year).

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

Some permanent opponents need to stay for rivalry purposes and TV content.

 

[CEB]

Some permanent opponents need to stay for rivalry purposes and TV content.

Do they?
I think all of the conference jockeying recently has indicated that’s not true.
Rivalries in multiple states and conferences are gone and TV is paying more for it.
I don’t understand it either, but my assumption is that most rivalries arent appreciated on a national level, so TV doesn’t care either.

 

[slugboy]

We just got through arguing for balance. We had the fifteenth toughest schedule in the country--which would have been tougher if FSU hadn't sucked. Clemson had the thirty fifth toughest. Miami had the fifty fifth toughest. UNC had the NINETY THIRD toughest schedule; even Liberty played a tougher scheduleb than UNC.

I do understand setting up brands to play each other. I'll be frustrated if it means we always play the fifth toughest schedule in the land other ACC schools are on cruise control to ten wins.

2024 Resume ACC College Football Power Index - ESPN

View the 2024 ACC conference Resume College Football power index on ESPN. The FPI is the best predictor of a team's performance of the season.

www.espn.com

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

Do they?
I think all of the conference jockeying recently has indicated that’s not true.
Rivalries in multiple states and conferences are gone and TV is paying more for it.
I don’t understand it either, but my assumption is that most rivalries arent appreciated on a national level, so TV doesn’t care either.

Miami should play FSU every year. NC State and UNC. UVA and VT. Stanford and Cal. There are probably others but off the top of my head those came to mind.

TV would rather have Miami vs FSU than Miami vs Stanford and FSU vs WF.

 

[billga99]

With how big conferences have gotten, the only way to have “fair & balanced” schedules is not have any permanent opponents. Go to 9 conf games and have it where you play every team every 4 years if not every 2-3.

you can stay with 8 games. That would allow you to play every team home and away in a 4 year period assuming no permanent crossover opponents and current 17 teams.

 

[CEB]

Miami should play FSU every year. NC State and UNC. UVA and VT. Stanford and Cal. There are probably others but off the top of my head those came to mind.

TV would rather have Miami vs FSU than Miami vs Stanford and FSU vs WF.

I’ll give you Miami v FSU. That’s a ratings grabber nationally.
Outside of that, I don’t think ACC rivalries move the needle and TV would rather have matchups of ranked teams.
I don’t think this is unique to ACC either, so I’m not knocking us…
Most rivalries are small regional draws.

If you’re saying it should happen for the sake of tradition, no objection from me. I’m just saying they don’t carry value in todays viewership driven market.

 

[Root4GT]

We just got through arguing for balance. We had the fifteenth toughest schedule in the country--which would have been tougher if FSU hadn't sucked. Clemson had the thirty fifth toughest. Miami had the fifty fifth toughest. UNC had the NINETY THIRD toughest schedule; even Liberty played a tougher scheduleb than UNC.

I do understand setting up brands to play each other. I'll be frustrated if it means we always play the fifth toughest schedule in the land other ACC schools are on cruise control to ten wins.

2024 Resume ACC College Football Power Index - ESPN

View the 2024 ACC conference Resume College Football power index on ESPN. The FPI is the best predictor of a team's performance of the season.

www.espn.com

As long as we play Georgia every year we will have one of the hardest OOC schedules in the ACC. When we play ND as well as Georgia we will have the hardest ACC OOC schedule that year. Nothing we do in Conference will change that!

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

We just got through arguing for balance. We had the fifteenth toughest schedule in the country--which would have been tougher if FSU hadn't sucked. Clemson had the thirty fifth toughest. Miami had the fifty fifth toughest. UNC had the NINETY THIRD toughest schedule; even Liberty played a tougher scheduleb than UNC.

I do understand setting up brands to play each other. I'll be frustrated if it means we always play the fifth toughest schedule in the land other ACC schools are on cruise control to ten wins.

2024 Resume ACC College Football Power Index - ESPN

View the 2024 ACC conference Resume College Football power index on ESPN. The FPI is the best predictor of a team's performance of the season.

www.espn.com

There's no such thing as balance in scheduling. Like you said, if we tried to balance a schedule last year FSU would have been a tough opponent. Until they weren't.

We could do the 8 game ACC schedule where you play everyone home and away every four years and if schools want to schedule non-conference games in years they don't play, have at it. For example, Miami vs FSU could be a conference game in 2025 and 2027 but non-conference in 2026 and 2028.

A sample schedule for us could look something like this:

2025 & 2026: Cal, FSU, VT, UNC, Wake Forest, Clemson, BC, SMU
2027 & 2028 Stanford, Miami, UVA, Duke, NC State, Louisville, Syracuse, Pittsburgh

A home schedule could be:
2025: Clemson, UNC, Cal, BC
2026: FSU, VT, SMU, WF
2027: Miami, Duke, Louisville, Pittsburgh
2028: UVA, NCSU, Stanford, Syracuse

 

[g0lftime]

Instead of adding a team, could we kick out F$U?

Only if they have to pay.

 

[slugboy]

Pods make sense—almost. We have 18 to schedule, including Notre Dame. That’s three six-team pods or six three-team pods.

If you do six three-team pods, you have

• Cal, Stanford, SMU in the West
• GT, FSU, Miami in the South
• BC, Syracuse, Pitt in the North??
• VT, UVA, Wake
• Clemson, UNC, NCST in Carolina
• Louisville, Notre Dame, Duke in MidWest

(This breaks somehow)

Three pod games, five or six rotating

Two nine-team divisions also works IF Notre Dame goes in one. This is tough unless they get assigned

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

Pods make sense—almost. We have 18 to schedule, including Notre Dame. That’s three six-team pods or six three-team pods.

If you do six three-team pods, you have

• Cal, Stanford, SMU in the West
• GT, FSU, Miami in the South
• BC, Syracuse, Pitt in the North??
• VT, UVA, Wake
• Clemson, UNC, NCST in Carolina
• Louisville, Notre Dame, Duke in MidWest

(This breaks somehow)

Three pod games, five or six rotating

Two nine-team divisions also works IF Notre Dame goes in one. This is tough unless they get assigned

The ND games don't count in the standings so it doesn't work anyway. And ND would never be assigned Duke and Louisville. They would end up with some combination of Stanford, BC, Pittsburgh, GT, and Miami.

 

[RonJohn]

I am certain that DRad is talking in such a way as to make it not be Miami's fault that they missed out on the championship game and the CFP. What would Miami gain from such a change? The played Louisville, VT, and FSU this year. Who did they miss playing? Clemson? UNC? How would that have helped them get to the championship game, or make the CFP? Then answer for Miami is not to lose to GT and Syracuse. Do that and they are in both. Unfortunately for DRad, Miami starts strong every year, and then falls on their face 2/3 of the way through the season. They did better this year and only lost one more after their first loss. They typical season is winning 6-8 in a row, then losing the rest.(or most of the rest)

With as many teams as there are in the conference now, there are more things desired than are able to be accomplished. Do you want every player to be able to play against every other team in a four year career? Do you want a player to see home-and-home with each team in a four year career? Do you want to maintain rivalries between certain teams? Do you want "brands" to play for TV ratings?

Another thing that complicates things about SOS is that nobody knows ahead of the season what the scheduled SOS actually will be. There are prognostications, but they are often wrong. FSU was a highlight of GT's SOS before the season, but they are a drag on it after the season. If you try to schedule "good" teams to play each other in three years, or even next year, you are only guessing at who the "good" teams will be in the future.

 

[MacDaddy2]

Do they?
I think all of the conference jockeying recently has indicated that’s not true.
Rivalries in multiple states and conferences are gone and TV is paying more for it.
I don’t understand it either, but my assumption is that most rivalries arent appreciated on a national level, so TV doesn’t care either.

100% need to eliminate the permanent opponent. For years we played Clemson while VT had BC. From a fairness perspective that was bull ****

 

[Root4GT]

100% need to eliminate the permanent opponent. For years we played Clemson while VT had BC. From a fairness perspective that was bull ****

When the ACC added the 3 new teams they asked each school if and who they wanted a “protected” rival. GT said no one. UNC said Duke, NCST and UVA. Some teams have 1 others 2, UNC has 3 and GT and Louisville have 0.