Nobody Knows the ACC Divisions and Nobody Should

Over at Tomahawk Nation, LouC argues that the ACC should scrap divisions to improve scheduling. The basic idea is that the current divisions and scheduling do a poor job of facilitating rivalries and having conference foes play frequently enough. Since almost everyone hates the current divisions, that's an easy argument to make. LouC also claims that no divisional alignment would be satisfactory, and I agree.

LouC's solution is a pod-like scheduling plan that groups teams into three geographic units. Each team plays every team in is geographical region annually, and the rest of the schedule rotates. He grouped the teams into the North (BC, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Louisville), the Atlantic (Virginia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Duke), and the South (Wake Forest, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Miami). In this scenario, every match-up occurs at least twice in six years, which is a massive improvement over the current situation where some match-ups only happen twice in twelve years. But, once we unshackle scheduling from the constraints of divisions, we can do much better.

The ACC can schedule 3 annual protected rivals for each team, and ensure that every match-up occurs every other year. In this scenario, the rivals are built specifically for each team, so there is no need to divorce Wake Forest from the rest of the North Carolina schools, or to force a BC-Louisville rivalry that's never been and never will be.

Here is how the annual rivals would break down:

Boston College - Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Miami

Syracuse - Boston College, Pittsburgh, Louisville

Pittsburgh - Boston College, Syracuse, Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech - Virginia, Pittsburgh, Louisville

Virginia - Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Louisville

Louisville - Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Virginia

North Carolina - Virginia, North Carolina State, Duke

North Carolina State - North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest

Duke - North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest

Wake Forest - North Carolina State, Duke, Georgia Tech

Clemson - Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami

Georgia Tech - Clemson, Florida State, Wake Forest

Florida State - Miami, Clemson, Georgia Tech

Miami - Florida State, Clemson, Boston College

With 3 annual rivals and 8 games, that leaves 5 more games a season to fill and 10 remaining opponents. The ACC can simply schedule half in odd years and half in the even ones, or half for two years in a home-home and the other half for the subsequent two years.

For example, BC's schedule could break down like this:

Odd year - Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Miami, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Duke, Louisville

Even year - Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Miami, Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Virginia

There main issue with eliminating divisions is that NCAA doesn't currently allow a conference championship game without divisions. In the current environment, I believe that the ACC could successfully petition to have the championship game without divisions. If not, it's not like a lot of people care about the ACC Championship Game; the improved scheduling might be worth losing the game. If the ACC did allow the championship game, then this would guarantee that the ACC would send the teams with the two best records to the game.

This set-up would preserve traditional rivalries and facilitate local match-ups while making sure that conference opponents feel like conference opponents. Every team plays every other team at least once every two years, and plays three rivals annually. Every team plays at least two games every four years in the fertile recruiting ground of Florida. Duke and NC St would play the other North Carolina schools every year, while UNC and WF would play every other year. I'm sure some team loses out in some minor way, but I can't see any major priorities ignored by this kind of scheduling.

As a BC fan, I'd definitely prefer this set-up to the current one. BC plays the other two northern most teams (including real rival, Syracuse) and the Eagles get to re-boot the quasi-rivalry with Miami. Sure, the mini-rivalries of Virginia Tech and Clemson go to every other year, but nobody would lose sleep over that. Three games in Florida over four years would also be a nice little benefit for Addazio and the Eagles. From my perspective, this scheduling would definitely be better for BC and for the ACC in general.