(07-15-2019 09:59 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote: (07-12-2019 11:09 PM)Crayton Wrote: Ok, so I DID find a general solution to a 3/2/2 pod system. It is complicated to explain, so I brought a picture [...]
Atlantic: Florida St (Clemson), Miami (Virginia Tech), & Boston College (Syracuse)
Coastal: Pittsburgh (Georgia Tech), Louisville (Virginia), & Syracuse (Boston College)
Pod A: Clemson (NC State, Florida St) & Georgia Tech (Duke, Pittsburgh)
Pod B: Virginia (UNC, Louisville) & Virginia Tech (Miami, Wake Forest)
Pod C: NC State (Clemson, UNC) & Wake Forest (Virginia Tech, Duke)
Pod D: Duke (Georgia Tech, Wake Forest) & UNC (Virginia, NC State)
Very cool! I think you need to swap the NC schools around though. How's this?
While it's nice and symmetric-looking, I'm not sure how well this fares schedule-wise. I tried to work it out but things got kind of messy. Basically, I think it needs to be symmetric horizontally as well as vertically, and I don't know if that would preserve the necessary rivalries.
Wow. Strike Two. I had even drawn up annual cross-overs to show it worked... but did so with those wrong pairings of NC schools.
I may give up on defining a general solution, so here is a specific solution with the same guaranteed rivals and the smaller pods redone to achieve a working rotation of crossovers.
Atlantic: FSU (Clem), Mia (VT), and BC (Syr)
Coastal: Lou (UVA), Pitt (GT), and Syr (BC)
Pod A: UVA (VT, Lou) and UNC (Duke, NCSt)
Pod B: VT (UVA, Mia) and Wake (Duke, NCSt)
Pod C: NCSt (UNC, Wake) and Clem (FSU, GT)
Pod D: GT (Clem, Pitt) and Duke (UNC, Wake)
The problem was that (among others) NC State was to play Duke cross-division in years NCSt-Clem & Duke-GT we’re both divisional... but GT and Clemson were always in the same division. Now, everyone has an open cross-divisional slot in the same years as their cross-divisional opponents.
Start next year by trading VT and Pitt for FSU and BC (fair trade, for optics); the following year exchange NC State and Clemson for GT and Duke (2 years removed from a National Championship may make this less lopsided); and so on.
Maybe keep “Atlantic” and “Coastal” and give up on having them mean anything (how many schools are actually on the coast?) as teams cycle in and out. While the 3-2-2 keeps the best rivalries, the 3-4 system has it beat for fan accessibility. My next trial may be a 3-3-1 with the portmanteau division names (only 2 teams are without a named home).