ACC finally announces new divisions, scheduling
Posted by Brandon Rink on February 3, 2012 under ACC Baseball, ACC Basketball, ACC Football, Other ACC Coverage | 
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With a change in the ACC map, is coming even more that aren't sitting well with some ACC fans (Pic per OrangeandWhite.com).
Boom – the ACC is going to a 9-game football conference schedule when Pittsburgh and Syracuse join on a date TBD.
It’s an interesting move, following in the footsteps of the PAC-12, and in the end, it’s probably the right one.
If you’re adding teams, adding conference games makes sense – cutting the OOC down to three games.
Obviously, it’ll limit the amount of prime non-conference games, but let’s be honest, that can only help the ACC.
I’ve said for a while that Syracuse to the Atlantic and Pitt to the Coastal makes the most sense. The Orange rekindles the yearly matchup with regional neighbor Boston College, and plays Pitt in cross-divisional action.
It appears that was the main idea from what commish John Swofford told David Teel of the Daily Press:
Swofford said the “overriding factors” in the division assignments were keeping Virginia Tech and Boston College as partners, and rekindling the Boston College-Syracuse and Virginia Tech-Pitt rivalries that waned when the Hokies and Eagles left the Big East for the ACC.
In my estimation, there just wasn’t a way to feasibly blow up the divisional structure and piece it back together North-South or otherwise. They made the right call here.
The other main point of contention from the ACC announcement was the structure of the new 18-game basketball conference schedule, having just one guaranteed home-and-home series and a 14-team ACC Tourney. From the release:
The scheduling model will be based on a three-year cycle during which teams will play every league opponent at least once with the primary partners playing home and away annually while the other 12 rotate in groups of four: one year both home and away; one year at home only; and one year away only. Over the course of the three-year cycle primary partners play a total of six times and all other conference opponents play four times.
This is where most folks are freaking out, mostly in one particular state. How else can you really do it when throwing the ‘Cuse and Pitt into the mix? It’s not Tobacco Road-friendly from a historical standpoint, but there’s 10 other conference schools now.
From Teel again, Swofford says the new basketball-schedule style passed with majority support:
“The (basketball) coaches were very supportive of the one-partner scheduling,” Swofford said, “and as it turned out, so were the athletic directors.”
So, the plan is finally in place – when does this all go down? Looks like we’re not any closer to knowing.
From CBS’ Brett McMurphy…
ACC commissioner John Swofford wouldn’t speculate on Pittsburgh and Syracuse joining the ACC before 2014. “First of all, (that decision) is between Pitt and Syracuse and the Big East,” Swofford said.
However, if the Panthers and Orange can leave before 2014, the ACC will be ready.
“The fact we made our decision how we will schedule and compete certainly helps us (when they join),” Swofford said. “In terms of when that time may come, I don’t want to get into a hypothetical of this or that. Our position continues to be that we want to prepare ourselves when they’re ready and it’s appropriate for them to join us.”
The Big East won’t really still hold Pitt and Syracuse until 2014, right? (Right??) Who knows, but it’s not happening in 2012, and beyond that, the courts and whatever precedent West Virginia sets in its departure to Big XII will determine if there can be epic clashes like Clemson-Syracuse in 2013.
The sooner this will all go down the better, but probably by then, the ACC will get raided or add 10 more teams just to mess with us.
