You know it’s going to happen eventually, but I think the ACC should consider going back to 8 conference games. The idea is so that the ACC can simply play itself in a few bowl games without it being a regular season rematch and I think the time apart will make the game feel more like a real bowl game against an opponent that you don’t play very often.

Besides that, it seems to be getting harder finding interesting opponents out of the Big East when the conference keeps getting raided and I’m hoping all the ACC bowl games get back on the east coast where they can be attended. No more trips to El Paso, Boise, Shreveport, San Francisco.

I don’t know how the rest of you feel about the teams in the opposite division, but other than GT and Miami i’m a little indifferent or don’t care at all about playing the others which includes Notre Dame if they were to ever join the ACC. So let’s assume the divisions get a little make over and Louisville and Rutgers joins the ACC:

ATLANTIC / COASTAL
FSU / Miami
UMd / Pitt
GT / VT
NCSU / UNC
Wake / Duke
Cuse / BC
Clem / LU
RU / UVA

Ideally we would divide up North and South, but the ACC does not want the North division to feel like the old Big East. The FSU fan inside me says I can live with this alignment.

Could you imagine the Charlotte Belk bowl between Wake and UNC after 8 years of not playing? Or the Yankee bowl between Miami and Syracuse? Or the Champs Sports bowl between FSU and VT?

I agree with you for one simple reason.  It brings the schedule more in balance (assuming the breakdown will be 7 division games and 1 inter-division game.) and gives a truer division champion.  The 5-3 setup we have now is really unbalanced and the division record doesn’t really matter.  Like what happened to SCAR last year, you can sweep the division and get left out of the champ game. 

The 9 game conf schedule is a disaster because it continues the unfair imbalance AND forces teams to either give up potential schedule strengthening OOC games or the guaranteed win/home game with one of the lesser opponents.  For example, Clemson is keeping the UGA series, but future series with Ole Miss and Ok St are in danger of being cancelled.

I think N/S divisions are the only way to go once it gets to this point.

To get the ACC to 16, you are going to need Cincy, Louisville, Rutgers, Ucoon, South Florida and UCF. Maybe more.

Seminole - 25 June 2012 01:57 PM

To get the ACC to 16, you are going to need Cincy, Louisville, Rutgers, Ucoon, South Florida and UCF. Maybe more.

Memphis, Marshall…

The problem with larger Conferences will become an issue of who you DON"T play rather than who you play in order to win a conference….with a 16 team conference and an 8-game schedule, you will not play half of the teams in your conference and that frankly sucks….

if you are going to go to 16 then you might as well go to 18 teams, play only your teams in your 9 team division and play the other divisional champ at the end of the year.  That we you get your 8 game schedule, 4 OOC games and your 7 game home schedule.

CU_Tigers4life - 25 June 2012 03:55 PM

The problem with larger Conferences will become an issue of who you DON"T play rather than who you play in order to win a conference….with a 16 team conference and an 8-game schedule, you will not play half of the teams in your conference and that frankly sucks….

if you are going to go to 16 then you might as well go to 18 teams, play only your teams in your 9 team division and play the other divisional champ at the end of the year.  That we you get your 8 game schedule, 4 OOC games and your 7 game home schedule.

i mean, how many times have we heard cockfans bitch and moan about UGA’s conference schedule

The idea here is to not play each other so that when you do it feels like an OOC game if/when you meet up in a bowl game.

then conference realignment would have to occur every year, to prevent an SECw type dominance in the converence and instead of like what the ACC does now where you have a cross divisional partner, you might have 2 or 3 divisional partners you realign with, and then the divisions are restructered top to bottom every year so that one division doesnt become dominant over the rest…

or possibly something of that nature if you get my drift

GoTigers712 - 25 June 2012 05:00 PM

then conference realignment would have to occur every year, to prevent an SECw type dominance in the converence and instead of like what the ACC does now where you have a cross divisional partner, you might have 2 or 3 divisional partners you realign with, and then the divisions are restructered top to bottom every year so that one division doesnt become dominant over the rest…

or possibly something of that nature if you get my drift

That is a pretty accurate assessment IMO….You would have to evaluate all schools performance every few years to keep parity.  If the Stronger schools of the South beat on each other while the weaker Northern schools had an easier path to a conference titlegame that would go over like a lead baloon

look at the SEC east vs SEC west if you disagree with the premise of reorganizing every 5 years or so