As I said earlier, a swap for South Carolina isn't something that actually could happen. South Carolina will never willingly return to the ACC. Over the years - a lot of years - they really haven't had much success in either football or basketball. The only thing they have to hold over their in state rival is that they are in a conference generally considered to be far superior to the conference they left almost 50 years ago. That, and the pay is much better in the SEC to boot. That's important to their psyche.

From the ACC's perspective, that pay differential is intractable. They have very few ways to improve their market value, and the gap will only grow as long as their current contract is in place, which it will be for many years into the future. To change that contract, they have to find a way to change the terms of the deal. Adding a ninth conference game might help, but the best teams in the league don't want to do that because they want to preserve the ability to benefit from scheduling more games against teams from outside the conference that have more value to their fans than their conference mates.

So, speculating about division alignments may be amusing, but really pointless. The current alignment won't change because there isn't a better one that anybody could agree on. And unless Notre Dame changes its mind, which is highly unlikely, there is probably less than a 1% chance of adding or subtracting members in the foreseeable future. There will be no 16th team until there is a 15th team. And Notre Dame is the only candidate to be #15.

(11-02-2020 01:59 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(11-02-2020 01:13 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(11-02-2020 11:05 AM)ken d Wrote:  ...........................Annual
Atlantic...........Coastal X-over

Clemson.............South Carolina
Florida State.......Miami
Georgia Tech.......Duke
Pitt....................Virginia Tech
Boston College....Virginia
Syracuse............NC State
Wake Forest........North Carolina

Swapping Louisville for South Carolina allows ACC to go a 9 game league schedule to increase media pay while allowing Clemson to add someone like Auburn as an annual OOC rival. One fixed crossover, and rotate the others every three years. As the only Tobacco Road team in the Atlantic, Wake gets to pick its annual x-over opponent.

Setting aside the implausibility of SC leaving the SEC for the ACC, and that of the SEC accepting Louisville....

That ACC lineup would likely not fly. I don't think Clemson and FSU want to play that many games in the northeast, and the one southern team that does want to (Miami) has no northeast teams in their division. You'd probably just see SC replace Louisville in the Atlantic with no changes to protected crossovers (meaning SC gets UVA). Also, FSU and GT at the very least will still be opposed to a 9-game conference schedule -- potentially others as well.

Right—if you’re going to zipper an ACC with that membership, both divisions get:

1 VA school
2 NC schools
1 SC school
1 FL school

One division gets 2 Northeastern schools; the other gets a Northeastern school and GT.

BC, Cuse, VT, NC St, WF, Clemson, FSU
Pitt, GT, UVA, UNC, Duke, SC, Miami

In this unlikely fantasy, a true geographic zipper could be...

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

If you were trying to reach a parity point between the media value of the ACC and the SEC, you’d probably have to swap Louisville for Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

(11-02-2020 03:46 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  If you were trying to reach a parity point between the media value of the ACC and the SEC, you’d probably have to swap Louisville for Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Keep Louisville and swap WF.

(11-02-2020 03:42 PM)Wahoowa84 Wrote:  

(11-02-2020 01:59 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(11-02-2020 01:13 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(11-02-2020 11:05 AM)ken d Wrote:  ...........................Annual
Atlantic...........Coastal X-over

Clemson.............South Carolina
Florida State.......Miami
Georgia Tech.......Duke
Pitt....................Virginia Tech
Boston College....Virginia
Syracuse............NC State
Wake Forest........North Carolina

Swapping Louisville for South Carolina allows ACC to go a 9 game league schedule to increase media pay while allowing Clemson to add someone like Auburn as an annual OOC rival. One fixed crossover, and rotate the others every three years. As the only Tobacco Road team in the Atlantic, Wake gets to pick its annual x-over opponent.

Setting aside the implausibility of SC leaving the SEC for the ACC, and that of the SEC accepting Louisville....

That ACC lineup would likely not fly. I don't think Clemson and FSU want to play that many games in the northeast, and the one southern team that does want to (Miami) has no northeast teams in their division. You'd probably just see SC replace Louisville in the Atlantic with no changes to protected crossovers (meaning SC gets UVA). Also, FSU and GT at the very least will still be opposed to a 9-game conference schedule -- potentially others as well.

Right—if you’re going to zipper an ACC with that membership, both divisions get:

1 VA school
2 NC schools
1 SC school
1 FL school

One division gets 2 Northeastern schools; the other gets a Northeastern school and GT.

BC, Cuse, VT, NC St, WF, Clemson, FSU
Pitt, GT, UVA, UNC, Duke, SC, Miami

In this unlikely fantasy, a true geographic zipper could be...

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

This could work:

Atlantic/Coastal
Clemson/Georgia Tech
Florida State/Miami-FL
NC State/Wake Forest
North Carolina/Duke
Pittsburgh/Syracuse
South Carolina/Boston College
Virginia/Virginia Tech

Ooooh, can I play?

W&M-----Richmond
UVa------Maryland
VaTech---WVU
UNC------State
Duke-----Wake
SC--------Clemson

(11-03-2020 10:58 AM)esayem Wrote:  Ooooh, can I play?

W&M-----Richmond
UVa------Maryland
VaTech---WVU
UNC------State
Duke-----Wake
SC--------Clemson

...not if you're going to suggest William & Mary and Richmond join the ACC!

(11-03-2020 02:37 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(11-03-2020 10:58 AM)esayem Wrote:  Ooooh, can I play?

W&M-----Richmond
UVa------Maryland
VaTech---WVU
UNC------State
Duke-----Wake
SC--------Clemson

...not if you're going to suggest William & Mary and Richmond join the ACC!

Especially not if you ever try to sneak West Virginia in again.

(11-03-2020 04:42 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(11-03-2020 02:37 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(11-03-2020 10:58 AM)esayem Wrote:  Ooooh, can I play?

W&M-----Richmond
UVa------Maryland
VaTech---WVU
UNC------State
Duke-----Wake
SC--------Clemson

...not if you're going to suggest William & Mary and Richmond join the ACC!

Especially not if you ever try to sneak West Virginia in again.

C'mon fellas, don't you want to travel to all the road games?!?!

















(except WV)