Hello All got advised to post over here from Conference Reallignment lounge. In light of the talk of the Alliance, here is an out of the box ACC expansion Realignment that might entice ND to join the ACC. This post was originally posted to reddit here. Tables are easier to read through the link.

I have devised what I believe to be the most amenable conference realignment and expansion that could entice Notre Dame to join the ACC as a full football member, while being amenable to current ACC members.

The Current ACC

With the Coastal and Atlantic divisions, each ACC team play 6 divisional opponents +1 permanent rival +1 rotating rival for a total of 8 conference games. 4 ACC teams have permanent ACC-SEC rivalries. Notre Dame has a schedule agreement to play 5 ACC teams a year

The Notre Dame's Traditional Schedule Desires

Notre Dame desires to play 9 to 10 power five teams. Notre Dame has maintained annual games with USC, Stanford, and Navy. Notre Dame has included a Big Ten Team , and one rotating national power 5 team annually. Notre Dame is not interested in playing any ACC team annually as its history and rivalries is with teams in the mid-west.

An ACC Schedule Notre Dame could Support

The simplest way to entice Notre Dame into joining the ACC is by only adding two additional ACC games, by instituting an eight game conference schedule and adding Navy to the ACC as a permanent rival for Notre Dame. Additionally to entice Notre Dame into joining the ACC, Notre Dame and Navy will not be permanent members of either of the two newly redrawn ACC divisions. Instead Notre Dame and Navy will swap places their divisions each year. This results in Notre Dame and Navy seeing every current member of the ACC in two years, and visiting ever ACC stadium in four years. The ACC new East and West divisions would look like this with composition below:

Western Division Eastern (Coastal) Division
Georgia Tech Duke
Clemson NC State
Florida State Miami
Virginia Tech Virginia
Pittsburgh Wake Forest
Louisville North Carolina
Syracuse Boston College
Notre Dame <---> Navy
Yearly, each team would play every member of Division (7 opponents in its column), 1 cross permanent divisional rivals (team in its rows) for an 8 conference game schedule. Notre Dame and Navy would swap divisions every year and visit every stadium in four years.

Note that annually games cover every trophy or named ACC rivalry except BC vs. Clemson, VT v Miami, VT v BC, and uva v FSU. This realignment has the added benefit of giving ACC games that each fanbase would get excited about, and have been sorely neglected.

Each team will be required to play 9 Power five opponents per year. Note that there is no rotating cross division team on the schedule. This is by design, to allow for flexibility to teams with existing power five annual rivalries. Teams may elect to schedule cross divisional games in the conference to satisfy the 9 power five requirement. If for example VT wants to maintain an annual game with Miami, they can agree to play a cross divisional game each year. This would also open up a slot for alliance games. Only games in division, and permanent cross divisional games will count towards seeding for the ACC conference championship game.

Example Year One Schedule

Team Opponents Cross Divisional Opponent
Georgia Tech: Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Duke
Clemson: Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame NC State
Florida State: Georgia Tech Clemson Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Miami
Virginia Tech: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Virginia
Pittsburgh: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Wake Forest
Louisville: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Syracuse Notre Dame North Carolina
Syracuse: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Notre Dame Boston College
Notre Dame: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy
Duke: NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Georgia Tech
NC State: Duke Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Clemson
Miami: Duke NC State Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Florida State
Virginia Duke NC State Miami North Carolina Boston College: Wake Forest Navy Virginia Tech
Wake Forest Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Navy Pittsburgh
North Carolina: Duke NC State Miami Virginia Boston College Wake Forest Navy Louisville
Boston College Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest Navy Syracuse
Navy Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame
Example Year Two Schedule

Team Opponents Cross Divisional Opponent
Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Duke
Clemson Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy NC State
Florida State Georgia Tech Clemson Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Miami
Virginia Tech Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Virginia
Pittsburgh Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Louisville Syracuse Navy Wake Forest
Louisville Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Syracuse Navy North Carolina
Syracuse Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Navy Boston College
Navy Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame
Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Georgia Tech
NC State Duke Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Clemson
Miami Duke NC State Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Florida State
Virginia Duke NC State Miami North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Virginia Tech
Wake Forest Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Notre Dame Pittsburgh
North Carolina Duke NC State Miami Virginia Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Louisville
Boston College Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest Notre Dame Syracuse
Notre Dame Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy

What Notre Dame Gets

Notre Dame gets 7 games against current ACC members each year, annual game with Navy in conference, and four additional games to schedule as it sees fit. If they want to maintain current annuals Stanford, USC, a Big ten team, and a floating National team. Notre Dame also get access to rich recruiting grounds with a rotation of @ GT (Atlanta), @Miami(South Florida), @ FSU (North Florida), and @UVA (DMV), with @Clemson, @UNC and @Louisville sprinkled in. Notre Dame is welcome to move ACC Conference Games to NFL stadiums with the agreement of the hosting teams.

What ACC would Get

ACC would get a chance to renegotiate its conference tv deal, ACC games back in the DC Metro Area, and a home game with Notre Dame every four years for every member. The ACC could also push for and likely receive the stipulation that Notre Dame must be a win higher than other ACC teams to be selected for a bowl bid over a non divisionally rotating member of the ACC as they maintain now. This would be the cost for the privilege of being a divisionally rotating member of the ACC

How will you Deal with Conference Championship Game?

The Conference Championship Game will select the two teams with the best record in divisional, and permanent cross divisional play. Since all divisional opponents play one another tie breakers can be settled by head to head results.

What if Notre Dame doesn't want to play Navy anymore?

You can replace Navy with Pittsburgh, and add Cincinnati to the west giving them Wake Forest as their Permanent Cross Divisional Game.

TL;DR: In first table each team would play every member of Division (7 opponents in its column), 1 cross permanent divisional rivals (team in its rows) for an 8 conference game schedule. Notre Dame and Navy would swap divisions every year and visit every stadium in four years. Second Table shows an even year conference schedule and Third table shows odd year conference schedule. Best record in each division in intradivisional play, and permanent cross divisional opponent qualifies for the conference championship game.

Once the playoff expands with at-large bids there will never be a reason for ND to join a conference.

The only way ND joins a conference at this point is if the playoff expands to 6 with AQ's for the P5 and an AQ for the highest ranked G5 and that's probably not going to happen.

To me, it would be nice to have ND as a full member but Im not counting on ND ever being a full member of the ACC. I am happy with the current arrangement. But I always thought that if the ACC could pull in ND it would also be able to get some one big to also come along, like PSU. Can you imagine the ACC getting ND and PSU? That would be the equivalent ofthe SEC landing Texas and Okl.. Will never happen though.

I appreciate all the work you put into that. On many levels it makes sense.


But the one thing that many people don't understand is just how important independence is to Notre Dame. The only way they voluntarily give that up is if they see joining a conference as the only way to compete for a national championship.

Short of that, they ain't moving.

(09-29-2021 01:02 PM)LeeNobody Wrote:  Hello All got advised to post over here from Conference Reallignment lounge. In light of the talk of the Alliance, here is an out of the box ACC expansion Realignment that might entice ND to join the ACC. This post was originally posted to reddit here. Tables are easier to read through the link.

I have devised what I believe to be the most amenable conference realignment and expansion that could entice Notre Dame to join the ACC as a full football member, while being amenable to current ACC members.

The Current ACC

With the Coastal and Atlantic divisions, each ACC team play 6 divisional opponents +1 permanent rival +1 rotating rival for a total of 8 conference games. 4 ACC teams have permanent ACC-SEC rivalries. Notre Dame has a schedule agreement to play 5 ACC teams a year

The Notre Dame's Traditional Schedule Desires

Notre Dame desires to play 9 to 10 power five teams. Notre Dame has maintained annual games with USC, Stanford, and Navy. Notre Dame has included a Big Ten Team , and one rotating national power 5 team annually. Notre Dame is not interested in playing any ACC team annually as its history and rivalries is with teams in the mid-west.

An ACC Schedule Notre Dame could Support

The simplest way to entice Notre Dame into joining the ACC is by only adding two additional ACC games, by instituting an eight game conference schedule and adding Navy to the ACC as a permanent rival for Notre Dame. Additionally to entice Notre Dame into joining the ACC, Notre Dame and Navy will not be permanent members of either of the two newly redrawn ACC divisions. Instead Notre Dame and Navy will swap places their divisions each year. This results in Notre Dame and Navy seeing every current member of the ACC in two years, and visiting ever ACC stadium in four years. The ACC new East and West divisions would look like this with composition below:

Western Division Eastern (Coastal) Division
Georgia Tech Duke
Clemson NC State
Florida State Miami
Virginia Tech Virginia
Pittsburgh Wake Forest
Louisville North Carolina
Syracuse Boston College
Notre Dame <---> Navy
Yearly, each team would play every member of Division (7 opponents in its column), 1 cross permanent divisional rivals (team in its rows) for an 8 conference game schedule. Notre Dame and Navy would swap divisions every year and visit every stadium in four years.

Note that annually games cover every trophy or named ACC rivalry except BC vs. Clemson, VT v Miami, VT v BC, and uva v FSU. This realignment has the added benefit of giving ACC games that each fanbase would get excited about, and have been sorely neglected.

Each team will be required to play 9 Power five opponents per year. Note that there is no rotating cross division team on the schedule. This is by design, to allow for flexibility to teams with existing power five annual rivalries. Teams may elect to schedule cross divisional games in the conference to satisfy the 9 power five requirement. If for example VT wants to maintain an annual game with Miami, they can agree to play a cross divisional game each year. This would also open up a slot for alliance games. Only games in division, and permanent cross divisional games will count towards seeding for the ACC conference championship game.

Example Year One Schedule

Team Opponents Cross Divisional Opponent
Georgia Tech: Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Duke
Clemson: Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame NC State
Florida State: Georgia Tech Clemson Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Miami
Virginia Tech: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Virginia
Pittsburgh: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Wake Forest
Louisville: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Syracuse Notre Dame North Carolina
Syracuse: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Notre Dame Boston College
Notre Dame: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy
Duke: NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Georgia Tech
NC State: Duke Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Clemson
Miami: Duke NC State Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Florida State
Virginia Duke NC State Miami North Carolina Boston College: Wake Forest Navy Virginia Tech
Wake Forest Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Navy Pittsburgh
North Carolina: Duke NC State Miami Virginia Boston College Wake Forest Navy Louisville
Boston College Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest Navy Syracuse
Navy Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame
Example Year Two Schedule

Team Opponents Cross Divisional Opponent
Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Duke
Clemson Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy NC State
Florida State Georgia Tech Clemson Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Miami
Virginia Tech Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Virginia
Pittsburgh Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Louisville Syracuse Navy Wake Forest
Louisville Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Syracuse Navy North Carolina
Syracuse Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Navy Boston College
Navy Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame
Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Georgia Tech
NC State Duke Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Clemson
Miami Duke NC State Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Florida State
Virginia Duke NC State Miami North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Virginia Tech
Wake Forest Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Notre Dame Pittsburgh
North Carolina Duke NC State Miami Virginia Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Louisville
Boston College Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest Notre Dame Syracuse
Notre Dame Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy

What Notre Dame Gets

Notre Dame gets 7 games against current ACC members each year, annual game with Navy in conference, and four additional games to schedule as it sees fit. If they want to maintain current annuals Stanford, USC, a Big ten team, and a floating National team. Notre Dame also get access to rich recruiting grounds with a rotation of @ GT (Atlanta), @Miami(South Florida), @ FSU (North Florida), and @UVA (DMV), with @Clemson, @UNC and @Louisville sprinkled in. Notre Dame is welcome to move ACC Conference Games to NFL stadiums with the agreement of the hosting teams.

What ACC would Get

ACC would get a chance to renegotiate its conference tv deal, ACC games back in the DC Metro Area, and a home game with Notre Dame every four years for every member. The ACC could also push for and likely receive the stipulation that Notre Dame must be a win higher than other ACC teams to be selected for a bowl bid over a non divisionally rotating member of the ACC as they maintain now. This would be the cost for the privilege of being a divisionally rotating member of the ACC

How will you Deal with Conference Championship Game?

The Conference Championship Game will select the two teams with the best record in divisional, and permanent cross divisional play. Since all divisional opponents play one another tie breakers can be settled by head to head results.

What if Notre Dame doesn't want to play Navy anymore?

You can replace Navy with Pittsburgh, and add Cincinnati to the west giving them Wake Forest as their Permanent Cross Divisional Game.

TL;DR: In first table each team would play every member of Division (7 opponents in its column), 1 cross permanent divisional rivals (team in its rows) for an 8 conference game schedule. Notre Dame and Navy would swap divisions every year and visit every stadium in four years. Second Table shows an even year conference schedule and Third table shows odd year conference schedule. Best record in each division in intradivisional play, and permanent cross divisional opponent qualifies for the conference championship game.

Thanks for all the effort put into your idea......but no thanks.

(09-29-2021 01:02 PM)LeeNobody Wrote:  This post was originally posted to reddit here.

I'm 99% sure at this point that Notre Dame will never join the ACC for football, which also means there's no reason to ever invite Navy.

That said, the divisions along the blue line are not half bad!

ACC West
Syracuse, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State

ACC East
Boston College, Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, Miami

Only 3 crossovers worth keeping, IMO:
Syracuse/BC
VT/UVA
FSU/Miami

The other 8 teams could rotate amongst themselves for the 7th game, and all 14 teams could rotate for the 8th game.

I like the divisions as well. I’d also keep Duke-GaTech as a crossover.

Not happening. All this talk just makes Notre Dame think its football independence is incredibly valuable and cannot be relinquished. This talk might be counterproductive if it were actually close in the minds of the Notre Dame folks but it’s not close. They’re staying independent in football absent overwhelming pressure. The idea that adding Navy or fiddling with the divisions will make a difference is just pathetic.

I don’t want to see Notre Dame join The ACC or any other conference for that matter.

We’ve already lost too much tradition the last few years in college football. Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers make about as much sense being in The Big Ten as Louisville, Pitt and Syracuse do being in The ACC.

College football is better with Notre Dame as an independent, Nebraska playing Oklahoma and Louisville playing Cincinnati and Memphis, Pitt playing WVA and Syracuse playing UCONN

(09-29-2021 06:36 PM)esayem Wrote:  I like the divisions as well. I’d also keep Duke-GaTech as a crossover.

Well of course a UNC fan likes to be in the weakest division with the best recruiting territories.

(09-29-2021 07:01 PM)Statefan Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 06:36 PM)esayem Wrote:  I like the divisions as well. I’d also keep Duke-GaTech as a crossover.

Well of course a UNC fan likes to be in the weakest division with the best recruiting territories.

Mack is not actively recruiting in the state of Florida.

and there aren't many football recruits that come out of Boston.

Yeaaaahhh... dude lost me at Navy.

The only way is simple. Make the playoff have a ccg tie-in (you can only go if you appeared in the championship game no matter the result). That is the only way is for playoff access to be squeezed or done away with.

Scheduling is just one factor.

ND is going to stay football independent for its brand/marketing.

I know a lot of people on this board would hate this idea (HokieMark is the first one I can think of) but what I think the ACC should do is to find a way to make ND eligible to run for ACC championship game while keeping ND technically independent. The current NCAA rule doesn’t allow that unless the ACC and ND give up the 12th game.

Fortunately, the landscape is changing. The NCAA’s control on the FBS college football is going to be weakened. The ACC is making an alliance with the BIG and the Pac 12. Heck, even Jim Delany, who once killed the ACC’s proposal to deregulate the conference championship game, now can work for the ACC as a consultant.

Now, what should the ACC ask ND in return? ND should fully join the ESPN/ACCN as a member of the ACC, which would trigger reopening of the ACC contract and the significant increase of the payout.

The ACC doesn’t need ND to drop its football independence. It only needs ND to drop its financial independence.

(09-29-2021 01:02 PM)LeeNobody Wrote:  Hello All got advised to post over here from Conference Reallignment lounge. In light of the talk of the Alliance, here is an out of the box ACC expansion Realignment that might entice ND to join the ACC. This post was originally posted to reddit here. Tables are easier to read through the link.

I have devised what I believe to be the most amenable conference realignment and expansion that could entice Notre Dame to join the ACC as a full football member, while being amenable to current ACC members.

The Current ACC

With the Coastal and Atlantic divisions, each ACC team play 6 divisional opponents +1 permanent rival +1 rotating rival for a total of 8 conference games. 4 ACC teams have permanent ACC-SEC rivalries. Notre Dame has a schedule agreement to play 5 ACC teams a year

The Notre Dame's Traditional Schedule Desires

Notre Dame desires to play 9 to 10 power five teams. Notre Dame has maintained annual games with USC, Stanford, and Navy. Notre Dame has included a Big Ten Team , and one rotating national power 5 team annually. Notre Dame is not interested in playing any ACC team annually as its history and rivalries is with teams in the mid-west.

An ACC Schedule Notre Dame could Support

The simplest way to entice Notre Dame into joining the ACC is by only adding two additional ACC games, by instituting an eight game conference schedule and adding Navy to the ACC as a permanent rival for Notre Dame. Additionally to entice Notre Dame into joining the ACC, Notre Dame and Navy will not be permanent members of either of the two newly redrawn ACC divisions. Instead Notre Dame and Navy will swap places their divisions each year. This results in Notre Dame and Navy seeing every current member of the ACC in two years, and visiting ever ACC stadium in four years. The ACC new East and West divisions would look like this with composition below:

Western Division Eastern (Coastal) Division
Georgia Tech Duke
Clemson NC State
Florida State Miami
Virginia Tech Virginia
Pittsburgh Wake Forest
Louisville North Carolina
Syracuse Boston College
Notre Dame <---> Navy
Yearly, each team would play every member of Division (7 opponents in its column), 1 cross permanent divisional rivals (team in its rows) for an 8 conference game schedule. Notre Dame and Navy would swap divisions every year and visit every stadium in four years.

Note that annually games cover every trophy or named ACC rivalry except BC vs. Clemson, VT v Miami, VT v BC, and uva v FSU. This realignment has the added benefit of giving ACC games that each fanbase would get excited about, and have been sorely neglected.

Each team will be required to play 9 Power five opponents per year. Note that there is no rotating cross division team on the schedule. This is by design, to allow for flexibility to teams with existing power five annual rivalries. Teams may elect to schedule cross divisional games in the conference to satisfy the 9 power five requirement. If for example VT wants to maintain an annual game with Miami, they can agree to play a cross divisional game each year. This would also open up a slot for alliance games. Only games in division, and permanent cross divisional games will count towards seeding for the ACC conference championship game.

Example Year One Schedule

Team Opponents Cross Divisional Opponent
Georgia Tech: Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Duke
Clemson: Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame NC State
Florida State: Georgia Tech Clemson Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Miami
Virginia Tech: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Virginia
Pittsburgh: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Wake Forest
Louisville: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Syracuse Notre Dame North Carolina
Syracuse: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Notre Dame Boston College
Notre Dame: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy
Duke: NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Georgia Tech
NC State: Duke Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Clemson
Miami: Duke NC State Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Florida State
Virginia Duke NC State Miami North Carolina Boston College: Wake Forest Navy Virginia Tech
Wake Forest Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Navy Pittsburgh
North Carolina: Duke NC State Miami Virginia Boston College Wake Forest Navy Louisville
Boston College Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest Navy Syracuse
Navy Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame
Example Year Two Schedule

Team Opponents Cross Divisional Opponent
Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Duke
Clemson Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy NC State
Florida State Georgia Tech Clemson Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Miami
Virginia Tech Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Virginia
Pittsburgh Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Louisville Syracuse Navy Wake Forest
Louisville Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Syracuse Navy North Carolina
Syracuse Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Navy Boston College
Navy Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame
Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Georgia Tech
NC State Duke Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Clemson
Miami Duke NC State Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Florida State
Virginia Duke NC State Miami North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Virginia Tech
Wake Forest Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Notre Dame Pittsburgh
North Carolina Duke NC State Miami Virginia Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Louisville
Boston College Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest Notre Dame Syracuse
Notre Dame Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy

What Notre Dame Gets

Notre Dame gets 7 games against current ACC members each year, annual game with Navy in conference, and four additional games to schedule as it sees fit. If they want to maintain current annuals Stanford, USC, a Big ten team, and a floating National team. Notre Dame also get access to rich recruiting grounds with a rotation of @ GT (Atlanta), @Miami(South Florida), @ FSU (North Florida), and @UVA (DMV), with @Clemson, @UNC and @Louisville sprinkled in. Notre Dame is welcome to move ACC Conference Games to NFL stadiums with the agreement of the hosting teams.

What ACC would Get

ACC would get a chance to renegotiate its conference tv deal, ACC games back in the DC Metro Area, and a home game with Notre Dame every four years for every member. The ACC could also push for and likely receive the stipulation that Notre Dame must be a win higher than other ACC teams to be selected for a bowl bid over a non divisionally rotating member of the ACC as they maintain now. This would be the cost for the privilege of being a divisionally rotating member of the ACC

How will you Deal with Conference Championship Game?

The Conference Championship Game will select the two teams with the best record in divisional, and permanent cross divisional play. Since all divisional opponents play one another tie breakers can be settled by head to head results.

What if Notre Dame doesn't want to play Navy anymore?

You can replace Navy with Pittsburgh, and add Cincinnati to the west giving them Wake Forest as their Permanent Cross Divisional Game.

TL;DR: In first table each team would play every member of Division (7 opponents in its column), 1 cross permanent divisional rivals (team in its rows) for an 8 conference game schedule. Notre Dame and Navy would swap divisions every year and visit every stadium in four years. Second Table shows an even year conference schedule and Third table shows odd year conference schedule. Best record in each division in intradivisional play, and permanent cross divisional opponent qualifies for the conference championship game.

No offense, but this post is…

(09-29-2021 01:02 PM)LeeNobody Wrote:  Hello All got advised to post over here from Conference Reallignment lounge. In light of the talk of the Alliance, here is an out of the box ACC expansion Realignment that might entice ND to join the ACC. This post was originally posted to reddit here. Tables are easier to read through the link.

I have devised what I believe to be the most amenable conference realignment and expansion that could entice Notre Dame to join the ACC as a full football member, while being amenable to current ACC members.

The Current ACC

With the Coastal and Atlantic divisions, each ACC team play 6 divisional opponents +1 permanent rival +1 rotating rival for a total of 8 conference games. 4 ACC teams have permanent ACC-SEC rivalries. Notre Dame has a schedule agreement to play 5 ACC teams a year

The Notre Dame's Traditional Schedule Desires

Notre Dame desires to play 9 to 10 power five teams. Notre Dame has maintained annual games with USC, Stanford, and Navy. Notre Dame has included a Big Ten Team , and one rotating national power 5 team annually. Notre Dame is not interested in playing any ACC team annually as its history and rivalries is with teams in the mid-west.

An ACC Schedule Notre Dame could Support

The simplest way to entice Notre Dame into joining the ACC is by only adding two additional ACC games, by instituting an eight game conference schedule and adding Navy to the ACC as a permanent rival for Notre Dame. Additionally to entice Notre Dame into joining the ACC, Notre Dame and Navy will not be permanent members of either of the two newly redrawn ACC divisions. Instead Notre Dame and Navy will swap places their divisions each year. This results in Notre Dame and Navy seeing every current member of the ACC in two years, and visiting ever ACC stadium in four years. The ACC new East and West divisions would look like this with composition below:

Western Division Eastern (Coastal) Division
Georgia Tech Duke
Clemson NC State
Florida State Miami
Virginia Tech Virginia
Pittsburgh Wake Forest
Louisville North Carolina
Syracuse Boston College
Notre Dame <---> Navy
Yearly, each team would play every member of Division (7 opponents in its column), 1 cross permanent divisional rivals (team in its rows) for an 8 conference game schedule. Notre Dame and Navy would swap divisions every year and visit every stadium in four years.

Note that annually games cover every trophy or named ACC rivalry except BC vs. Clemson, VT v Miami, VT v BC, and uva v FSU. This realignment has the added benefit of giving ACC games that each fanbase would get excited about, and have been sorely neglected.

Each team will be required to play 9 Power five opponents per year. Note that there is no rotating cross division team on the schedule. This is by design, to allow for flexibility to teams with existing power five annual rivalries. Teams may elect to schedule cross divisional games in the conference to satisfy the 9 power five requirement. If for example VT wants to maintain an annual game with Miami, they can agree to play a cross divisional game each year. This would also open up a slot for alliance games. Only games in division, and permanent cross divisional games will count towards seeding for the ACC conference championship game.

Example Year One Schedule

Team Opponents Cross Divisional Opponent
Georgia Tech: Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Duke
Clemson: Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame NC State
Florida State: Georgia Tech Clemson Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Miami
Virginia Tech: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Virginia
Pittsburgh: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame Wake Forest
Louisville: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Syracuse Notre Dame North Carolina
Syracuse: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Notre Dame Boston College
Notre Dame: Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy
Duke: NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Georgia Tech
NC State: Duke Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Clemson
Miami: Duke NC State Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy Florida State
Virginia Duke NC State Miami North Carolina Boston College: Wake Forest Navy Virginia Tech
Wake Forest Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Navy Pittsburgh
North Carolina: Duke NC State Miami Virginia Boston College Wake Forest Navy Louisville
Boston College Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest Navy Syracuse
Navy Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame
Example Year Two Schedule

Team Opponents Cross Divisional Opponent
Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Duke
Clemson Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy NC State
Florida State Georgia Tech Clemson Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Miami
Virginia Tech Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Navy Virginia
Pittsburgh Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Louisville Syracuse Navy Wake Forest
Louisville Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Syracuse Navy North Carolina
Syracuse Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Navy Boston College
Navy Georgia Tech Clemson Florida State Virginia Tech Pittsburgh Louisville Syracuse Notre Dame
Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Georgia Tech
NC State Duke Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Clemson
Miami Duke NC State Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Florida State
Virginia Duke NC State Miami North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Virginia Tech
Wake Forest Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Notre Dame Pittsburgh
North Carolina Duke NC State Miami Virginia Boston College Wake Forest Notre Dame Louisville
Boston College Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest Notre Dame Syracuse
Notre Dame Duke NC State Miami Virginia North Carolina Boston College Wake Forest Navy

What Notre Dame Gets

Notre Dame gets 7 games against current ACC members each year, annual game with Navy in conference, and four additional games to schedule as it sees fit. If they want to maintain current annuals Stanford, USC, a Big ten team, and a floating National team. Notre Dame also get access to rich recruiting grounds with a rotation of @ GT (Atlanta), @Miami(South Florida), @ FSU (North Florida), and @UVA (DMV), with @Clemson, @UNC and @Louisville sprinkled in. Notre Dame is welcome to move ACC Conference Games to NFL stadiums with the agreement of the hosting teams.

What ACC would Get

ACC would get a chance to renegotiate its conference tv deal, ACC games back in the DC Metro Area, and a home game with Notre Dame every four years for every member. The ACC could also push for and likely receive the stipulation that Notre Dame must be a win higher than other ACC teams to be selected for a bowl bid over a non divisionally rotating member of the ACC as they maintain now. This would be the cost for the privilege of being a divisionally rotating member of the ACC

How will you Deal with Conference Championship Game?

The Conference Championship Game will select the two teams with the best record in divisional, and permanent cross divisional play. Since all divisional opponents play one another tie breakers can be settled by head to head results.

What if Notre Dame doesn't want to play Navy anymore?

You can replace Navy with Pittsburgh, and add Cincinnati to the west giving them Wake Forest as their Permanent Cross Divisional Game.

TL;DR: In first table each team would play every member of Division (7 opponents in its column), 1 cross permanent divisional rivals (team in its rows) for an 8 conference game schedule. Notre Dame and Navy would swap divisions every year and visit every stadium in four years. Second Table shows an even year conference schedule and Third table shows odd year conference schedule. Best record in each division in intradivisional play, and permanent cross divisional opponent qualifies for the conference championship game.

All of this typing for something that will NEVER happen...

(09-29-2021 07:01 PM)Statefan Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 06:36 PM)esayem Wrote:  I like the divisions as well. I’d also keep Duke-GaTech as a crossover.

Well of course a UNC fan likes to be in the weakest division with the best recruiting territories.

Trade BC for GaTech and I’m happy as a clam.

UVA—————-VaTech
Wake
UNC
Duke
State
GT——————Clem
Miami————-FSU

———————-BC, SU, Pitt, Louisville

GET ER DONE

(09-30-2021 09:37 AM)esayem Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 07:01 PM)Statefan Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 06:36 PM)esayem Wrote:  I like the divisions as well. I’d also keep Duke-GaTech as a crossover.

Well of course a UNC fan likes to be in the weakest division with the best recruiting territories.

Trade BC for GaTech and I’m happy as a clam.

UVA—————-VaTech
Wake
UNC
Duke
State
GT——————Clem
Miami————-FSU

———————-BC, SU, Pitt, Louisville

GET ER DONE

No Deal. We keep GT.

(09-30-2021 10:47 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(09-30-2021 09:37 AM)esayem Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 07:01 PM)Statefan Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 06:36 PM)esayem Wrote:  I like the divisions as well. I’d also keep Duke-GaTech as a crossover.

Well of course a UNC fan likes to be in the weakest division with the best recruiting territories.

Trade BC for GaTech and I’m happy as a clam.

UVA—————-VaTech
Wake
UNC
Duke
State
GT——————Clem
Miami————-FSU

———————-BC, SU, Pitt, Louisville

GET ER DONE

No Deal. We keep GT.

You don't really get a say in the matter.

(09-30-2021 01:12 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(09-30-2021 10:47 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(09-30-2021 09:37 AM)esayem Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 07:01 PM)Statefan Wrote:  

(09-29-2021 06:36 PM)esayem Wrote:  I like the divisions as well. I’d also keep Duke-GaTech as a crossover.

Well of course a UNC fan likes to be in the weakest division with the best recruiting territories.

Trade BC for GaTech and I’m happy as a clam.

UVA—————-VaTech
Wake
UNC
Duke
State
GT——————Clem
Miami————-FSU

———————-BC, SU, Pitt, Louisville

GET ER DONE

No Deal. We keep GT.

You don't really get a say in the matter.

You may find that things won't work in the ACC like they used to.