Proposal for ACC Power Move for Notre Dame and Division Realignment

The ACC as a conference is arguably having its best football season with 11 bowl teams including 2 BCS bowl teams and FSU likely to win the national title. There is more that the ACC could do to further strengthen itself among the 5 football power conferences and I think this spring is the best time for the conference to make a big move going into the playoff era. Here's my proposal for the ACC to add Notre Dame, become the first 16 team power conference with 4 team divisions, and develop a 4 team conference championship playoff.

Problems with Current Division Alignment

There has been recent chatter in regards to further ACC realignment mainly because of Syracuse's AD emailing the other ACC ADs complaining the current structure. With the current way the ACC is constructed conference members could go a long time without playing each other, for example VT is only scheduled to play Louisville once in the next 10 years. Some proposals for cross division conference members to play each other more often that have been tossed around have been for teams to abandon permanent cross division rivalries or for the conference to play 9 conference games a year. The proposal for 9 conference games is highly unpopular for teams that play SEC rivalry games and the idea of getting rid of some yearly current cross divisions like Miami vs Florida State would be horrible for ACC marketability. There is one idea that could have conference teams play other members more often without adding a conference game and that includes going to the 4 team pod system.

When the conference realignment rumors were running rampant one idea that was pushed was that a conference that went to 16 teams could possibly split into 4 team pods similar to the divisions that exist in each conference within the NFL. If a 16 team league was to go to this system then theoretically within a 4 year cycle every team in the league could play each with the need to only play 7 regular season conference games a year and teams could keep a crossover rival. The only way that a 4 team, 4 division system would work in the ACC is of course if the ACC expanded from 14 full football members to 16 and there is one team that everyone in the ACC would like to add.

Adding Navy, Coercing Notre Dame

Notre Dame has lately been having a marketing push promoting their 6-5-1 scheduling. In their scheduling model they play yearly rivalries with USC, Stanford and Navy as well as playing 5 ACC games a year.

If the ACC was to add Navy then Notre Dame would play 6 ACC teams a year and I believe then the ACC could coerce Notre Dame into becoming a full member. With the old BCS system Notre Dame had a very favorable seat at the table in which it negotiated its way as being on par with the power conferences but the new playoff committee takes away that advantage. It's likely Notre Dame as an independent would be at a disadvantage in playoff committee eyes against a team with the same record but that also had to play in a high profile end of the year conference championship. If Navy was added to the ACC then Notre Dame would have the risk of going through just about a full ACC conference schedule without the reward of playing for the league title. I'd propose that Notre Dame joins the 16 team ACC in a pod and that to sweeten the deal could arrange it so that FSU ends up being the cross-over rival so that at least every other year they are in Florida for recruiting.

As far as the TV contracts go I think it could be a situation very similar to how it is now. NBC would still televise all Notre Dame home games like it does now but then the ESPN contract would apply to all games on the home turf of the other 15 ACC league members. The ESPN money would be split 15 ways and Notre Dame gets to keep their NBC deal. With ACC having Notre Dame on schedule for 4 ACC home games a year that should up the price in the TV deal.

Pod System in the 16 team ACC

Here's my envisioning of the alignment of teams in the pod system:

With these pods each of the major rivalries for ACC would continue and the conference would have be split up in a way that makes sense geographically (maybe a few tweaks like switching Wake Forest and Clemson for competitive reasons). Each pod would match up with a different pod each year to form 2 divisions consisting of 8 teams. I'd envision that teams would play 7 regular season conference games against the teams in their semi-divisions and then there would be a cross-over rival that would occur to help keep teams happy with a yearly opponent.

Most of the old yearly matchups in my listed pod alignment takes care of bigger rivalries (FSU vs Miami, North Carolina vs Duke, Virginia Tech vs UVA). I feel as giving Notre Dame a cross over with FSU would substantially sweeten the deal for them to join the ACC as well. There could be a mechanism in place when a team plays the pod their rival is located in.

The winner of each 2 pod division would face each other in the ACC championship game. I think this will add some additional intrigue that the 2 teams in the championship 1 year could be division foes the next year.

I know it's an outside the box idea but I believe that it makes sense and could further position the ACC as a top football conference. I definitely think it's crazy that VT plays Louisville once in the next 10 years and FSU doesn't visit Blacksburg again until 2023.