ACC Realignment: Should Georgia Tech And Boston College Swap Divisions?

be for some real marbles. But I don’t know if I totally agree with the proposition. While it decreases travel between the Atlantic members, it increases it for Miami. Though it would bring back the Miami & BC games, which need to be more common place than they are now. Also, it removes the current series between Clemson and BC. Also, the GT vs UNC game would be no more, which has been a good series so far since expansion. And I think that Brian is right about one thing, it would help fix up the baseball tilt that is currently going on, but I still am not all that enthralled by it.

The main reason that I oppose this though, is that it puts the 3 newest members in one side of the conference. While I consider our new brethren to be ACC members now, it would create a stigma that they are still Big East members playing in the ACC. So i understand when they split the divisions that VT & Miami got put on one side and BC on the other.

Now how would I propose fixing this issue you ask? Easy. Move the conference schedule to 9 games instead of the current 8. Now this is a risky move, because it makes it even harder to go undefeated, and removes an extra out of conference game. But that would be good for the fans, and for schools such as Duke, BC, and UNC who usually fill their OOC schedule with cupcakes and have a hard time selling tickets to terrible games. More conference games should equal better fan excitement, and more booster and tv money for the athletic departments and conference as whole. This would allow the teams to play the 5 in division + 1 other division rivalry + 3 other division games, which would alleviate those years of not seeing the other conference teams.

Sorry for the long post, though hopefully it sparks some debate. I want to post this at BCI, but you have to wait a day before posting their, meaning that topic might be over and done with before my voice is heard.

PS: (Now I’m hoping that the next blogs are about extra expansion, cause I want to see WVU and maybe ECU in the conference as well. THINK OF THE RIVALRIES AND DRUNKEN DEBAUCHERY THAT WOULD OCCUR)

I’m generally in favor of any realignment that makes FSU a permanent fixture on our schedule. I think it’s a crime that we no longer play each other every year.

It’d allow teams from one conference to play members of the other 4 years out of 6. It’s currently at 2 years out of every 6. (If those numbers are incorrect, I counted wrong. Sue me. I wasn’t an engineering major.) That would mean there are more marquee matchups each season. That’s more games picked up by the networks each year and more money the conference is worth (well, once our weak ESPN contract is up in 12 years…).

I’d split the divisions North/South. Sorry, but forcing arguably the Conference’s best program to play the two schools furthest away from it each year is nonsense. Not even that, but Maryland is pretty damn close to both Virginia schools and both of the public North Carolina schools. Why do they not play every year in football? I don’t think the competitive balance would be thrown off too much if the South got both Duke and Wake Forest. And I know this whole hypothetical was brought about by BC wanting to play Miami every year, but being able to play them 4 times out of every 6 is better than the current 2 out of 6, so they should think of it as a compromise that betters the entire conference.

South: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, Wake Forest
North: Boston College, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech

Now, that doesn’t even out the baseball divisions, but baseball isn’t a money sport. I’d like to see the big 6 baseball schools split up 3/3 but will the uneven divisions be that detrimental to any of the schools due to the additional 3 games they’ll face against a better school? I don’t see it as that big of an issue in regards to teams postseason aspirations. But since you guys are in the stronger division now, maybe you have more insight into this?

Does anybody else want divisions in basketball? A 10-6 ACC team was left out of the NCAAT in 2010. That should never happen, but it did, in large part due to unbalanced schedules. In the 2009-2010 season, FSU didn’t get Duke or UNC at home. Hurt attendance a little bit. I think every ACC team should get to host Duke/UNC at least once per year. Best way to do that is to split into 2 divisions with UNC in one and Duke in the other. To keep the ACC’s only 2 nationally relevant programs’ rivalry alive, have them as interdivisional rivals. (Yep, the interdivisional rivals that I say are unnecessary for football are actually good for basketball.) This would create a 17 game ACC schedule. Just bump it up to 18 and have the final game be a “floating” interdivisional game, where each season you play a different member of the opposite division twice. The ACC has been tossing around the idea of an 18 game schedule for several years now. Quit being b*****s and do it!

And my god, are any of you pissed off at how crappy the ACC deal with ESPN is looking? With the deals the Big XII got/will be getting and the deal the Pac 12 just landed. There are even a lot of articles talking about how the Big East may land a deal close to that of the ACC’s.

And don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all of the thoughtful comments, but no matter how you line up the divisions there is always going to be a trade off. Rivalries are lost or someone has to travel too far or one division gets out of balance. In my opinion the powers that be decreed that Miami and Florida State had to be in different divisions to create a possible championship match up. Once that is established it is almost impossible to line teams up in a way that doesn’t undo one problem by replacing it with a new problem.

Oh, hell, just for the fun of it here are my two divisions:

Coastal: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami

Atlantic: Florida State, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest