With Covid and the divide between states that are open and requiring folks to quarantine, it might make sense for the ACC to finally realign
its divisions to North/South. Along with this, you can let Notre Dame temporarily align itself in the North to even out the divisions. Is this crazy?

Then the 3 big brands are all in the South. The Big 10 has the 3 biggest in the East, but Nebraska and Wisconsin are pretty close behind. In the ACC, nobody is close to FSU, Clemson and Miami.

(07-12-2020 01:09 PM)whittx Wrote:  With Covid and the divide between states that are open and requiring folks to quarantine, it might make sense for the ACC to finally realign
its divisions to North/South. Along with this, you can let Notre Dame temporarily align itself in the North to even out the divisions. Is this crazy?

Not crazy, but not going to happen.

Ex-Big East schools, most especially Va. Tech and to a bit lesser extent Miami and Louisville, joined the ACC in large part because they wanted games with the old school ACC schools, which would mostly be in the South division. Furthermore, Virginia and one NC school would be separated from the other NC schools. No way they'd ever go for it.

What would make sense would be to change a couple of permanent cross-division rivalries.

New:

Louisville- Va. Tech
Boston College- Virginia

That makes for much better competitive balance and is more TV-friendly.

The rest stay the same.

North/South splits up rivals. Divisions should be aligned to maintain and maximize rivalries. The VA-2/NC-4 should be together. Clemson should be with GT & FSU. FSU should be with Miami. Miami should be with BC. BC should be with Syracuse. Syracuse should be with Pitt.

UVA, VT, UNC, NCSU, DU, WF, UL
CU, GT, FSU, Miami, BC, SU, Pitt

(07-12-2020 01:25 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  North/South splits up rivals. Divisions should be aligned to maintain and maximize rivalries. The VA-2/NC-4 should be together. Clemson should be with GT & FSU. FSU should be with Miami. Miami should be with BC. BC should be with Syracuse. Syracuse should be with Pitt.

UVA, VT, UNC, NCSU, DU, WF, UL
CU, GT, FSU, Miami, BC, SU, Pitt

I like that but the ACC has the unofficial rule of a FL school in each division

Miami.......FSU
UVA.........Louisville
VA Tech...BC
UNC.........Pitt
NC State..Clemson
Duke.........GA Tech
Wake........Syracuse

I like the Big East / old ACC split (with 1 sacrifice - likely being Wake Forest):

Atlantic: Miami, Wake Forest, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Boston College
Coastal: Florida St, Georgia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina, North Carolina St, Duke, Virginia

Permanent crossover rivals:
Miami - Florida St
Virginia Tech - Virginia
Wake Forest - rotation of North Carolina, North Carolina St, Duke

No others are necessary

(07-12-2020 01:25 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  North/South splits up rivals. Divisions should be aligned to maintain and maximize rivalries. The VA-2/NC-4 should be together. Clemson should be with GT & FSU. FSU should be with Miami. Miami should be with BC. BC should be with Syracuse. Syracuse should be with Pitt.

UVA, VT, UNC, NCSU, DU, WF, UL
CU, GT, FSU, Miami, BC, SU, Pitt

Yeah, this "donut/hole" alignment seems best, as discussed in the 4,253 other threads on this same topic on this message board.

Maybe for basketball/Olympics, a N/S split (The VA schools, Syracuse, Pitt, BC, Louisville, ND for the North)

For 1 year? if the ACC goes to 10 games this year then divisions won't matter much. The only consideration might be balancing the top of each division for a good Championship Game, but... no team really balances Clemson, so they should keep things as is.

The real question is, will Notre Dame be put into a division this season? They currently play 3 from each division, 10 games would allow them to play the other 4 in either division. They might be the team to put in the Coastal to "balance" Clemson. Though, ND may prefer no CCG chances so as to maintain their "Independent" status.

(07-13-2020 06:41 AM)Crayton Wrote:  For 1 year? if the ACC goes to 10 games this year then divisions won't matter much. The only consideration might be balancing the top of each division for a good Championship Game, but... no team really balances Clemson, so they should keep things as is.

The real question is, will Notre Dame be put into a division this season? They currently play 3 from each division, 10 games would allow them to play the other 4 in either division. They might be the team to put in the Coastal to "balance" Clemson. Though, ND may prefer no CCG chances so as to maintain their "Independent" status.

The issue that the ACC is going to run into is that half of the conference is in states that will require teams from Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas to quarantine. For example, FSU is scheduled to play Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Do you really think FSU would send a team to isolate in Syracuse for 2 weeks before their game?

(07-12-2020 01:24 PM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  

(07-12-2020 01:09 PM)whittx Wrote:  With Covid and the divide between states that are open and requiring folks to quarantine, it might make sense for the ACC to finally realign
its divisions to North/South. Along with this, you can let Notre Dame temporarily align itself in the North to even out the divisions. Is this crazy?

Not crazy, but not going to happen.

Ex-Big East schools, most especially Va. Tech and to a bit lesser extent Miami and Louisville, joined the ACC in large part because they wanted games with the old school ACC schools, which would mostly be in the South division. Furthermore, Virginia and one NC school would be separated from the other NC schools. No way they'd ever go for it.

What would make sense would be to change a couple of permanent cross-division rivalries.

New:

Louisville- Va. Tech
Boston College- Virginia

That makes for much better competitive balance and is more TV-friendly.

The rest stay the same.

While I tend to be agnostic about who plays who in the crossover games, I am not sure the issue of competitive balance applies to the BC-VT series. In it's 15 years in the ACC, BC has a 7-8 RS record against VT, which is a pretty good representation of competitive balance, IMO.

Fixing the divisions is simple: Swap Syracuse with VT to create a true zipper alignment. Then the divisions are balanced:

A team in Florida
A team in the I-85 corridor
Two NC teams
A team in Virginia
A team in the Ohio Valley region
A team in the Northeast



Crossovers would be:

BC - Syracuse
Clemson- GT
FSU - Miami
Louisville - Pitt
NC State - UNC
VT - UVA
Wake - Duke

Pitt might complain about losing "long time rival" VT but they've only played VT 19 times. They've played Louisville 17 times.

(07-13-2020 10:51 AM)Kaplony Wrote:  Fixing the divisions is simple: Swap Syracuse with VT to create a true zipper alignment. Then the divisions are balanced:

A team in Florida
A team in the I-85 corridor
Two NC teams
A team in Virginia
A team in the Ohio Valley region
A team in the Northeast



Crossovers would be:

BC - Syracuse
Clemson- GT
FSU - Miami
Louisville - Pitt
NC State - UNC
VT - UVA
Wake - Duke

Pitt might complain about losing "long time rival" VT but they've only played VT 19 times. They've played Louisville 17 times.

This is by far the most sensible division alignment. UNC/Wake and Duke/NCSU have worked together to schedule OOC.

Obviously, getting rid of divisions all together would be ideal.

(07-13-2020 09:36 AM)whittx Wrote:  

(07-13-2020 06:41 AM)Crayton Wrote:  For 1 year? if the ACC goes to 10 games this year then divisions won't matter much. The only consideration might be balancing the top of each division for a good Championship Game, but... no team really balances Clemson, so they should keep things as is.

The real question is, will Notre Dame be put into a division this season? They currently play 3 from each division, 10 games would allow them to play the other 4 in either division. They might be the team to put in the Coastal to "balance" Clemson. Though, ND may prefer no CCG chances so as to maintain their "Independent" status.

The issue that the ACC is going to run into is that half of the conference is in states that will require teams from Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas to quarantine. For example, FSU is scheduled to play Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Do you really think FSU would send a team to isolate in Syracuse for 2 weeks before their game?

For sure. If team A and B can't play one another, then you alter the schedule to fit that. And if team A can't play but a handful of teams, they may need to bow out this year.

Honestly, the ACC should go divisionless this year. No emergency waiver needed because no team is going to exceed 12 games playing for a Championship.

I like the following:

Atlantic: Piedmont:

Miami - FSU
NCSU - Clemson
UNC - Louisville
Duke - GT
WF - Syracuse
VT - Pitt
UVa - BC

Atlantic: VT, UVA, UNC, Duke, GT

Coastal: L’ville, N.C. St, WF, Clemson, FSU

Collegiate: Pitt, BC, Cuse, ND, Miami

If you could do semifinals with those division winners plus a WC and then the CCG that would be awesome.

(07-13-2020 02:56 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Atlantic: VT, UVA, UNC, Duke, GT

Coastal: L’ville, N.C. St, WF, Clemson, FSU

Collegiate: Pitt, BC, Cuse, ND, Miami

If you could do semifinals with those division winners plus a WC and then the CCG that would be awesome.

I'm not sure if 3 pods would work, you'd need to pick up 2 more programs and go to 4 pods of 4.

(07-13-2020 09:36 AM)whittx Wrote:  The issue that the ACC is going to run into is that half of the conference is in states that will require teams from Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas to quarantine. For example, FSU is scheduled to play Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Do you really think FSU would send a team to isolate in Syracuse for 2 weeks before their game?

Well, there are MLB or NFL teams in all but three ACC states, so let’s see what the rules look like for visiting teams. As the rules stand right now, I don’t see how the Mets can host Atlanta for their home opener on Friday, July 24th. I expect we’ll see some changes.

Never going to happen, but I wish the conference would be allowed to conduct a CCG between the top two teams after a non- robin schedule of eight games.

Each team would play three schools annually, two years of playing five schools, and then two years of playing the remaining five schools, so that each school plays all 13 other schools home and away at least once every four years.

These teams would play annually:

Miami: FSU, Va. Tech, Pitt
FSU: Miami, GT, Clemson
GT: FSU, Clemson, Pitt
Clemson: FSU, GT, NC State
Wake Forest: Duke, NC State, Boston College
UNC: Duke, NC State, Virginia
Duke: Wake, UNC, Virginia
NC State: Clemson, Wake, UNC
VT: Miami, Virginia, Louisville
Virginia: UNC, Duke, VT
Louisville: VT, Pitt, Boston College
Pitt: Miami, Louisville, GT
Syracuse: Louisville, Pitt, Boston College
Boston College: Wake, Louisville, Syracuse

(07-13-2020 03:01 PM)MidknightWhiskey Wrote:  

(07-13-2020 02:56 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Atlantic: VT, UVA, UNC, Duke, GT

Coastal: L’ville, N.C. St, WF, Clemson, FSU

Collegiate: Pitt, BC, Cuse, ND, Miami

If you could do semifinals with those division winners plus a WC and then the CCG that would be awesome.

I'm not sure if 3 pods would work, you'd need to pick up 2 more programs and go to 4 pods of 4.

With an 8 game conference games you can do scheduling 4-2-2

4 division opponents plus 2 opponents each from the other divisions. It amounts to playing your non-division opponents twice in a 5 year cycle.