OT: Hypothetical 16-team ACC Football Schedule

I'VE FINALLY DONE IT!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gmwHfDwzEPuC4nWZPuVYdbP6pLxL4NT8...

This is a work I've put off repeatedly basically since conference expansion first began. Partially because of time constraints, partially because of losing interest, partially because "who would be team #16"? In addition, I've started and restarted it a number of times because of problems with team balance and how best to work "how do teams advance to the ACC Championship Game?"

Some thing I tried to achieve in this setup:

1. an NFL-style division setup where there are basically four smaller divisions within the conference, each containing four teams

2. each smaller division ("pods") must contain two "northern" teams and two "southern" teams

3. each pod must contain two teams that, either historically or in the BCS era and beyond, have been nationally relevant for competitive balance

4. pods are played in a rotating bases, similar NFL schedules, so you'll see every team in the conference at least once every three years and at least twice every six years.

5. some rivalries were maintained within the pods (UNC-UVA, Miami-Pitt) while others were ended solely because of a combination of competitive balance and other scheduling issues to make this work (VT-Miami, FSU-Clemson) with the hope of new rivalries being created.

6. each team received a permanent rival they will play every year. This is generally their most traditional rival within the conference. In addition, each team

7. each team also has a second rival that they will play twice in a three-year span, or four times in a six-year period. In years where you play your permanent rival's pod, you will play your second rival as well.

The second tab has a list of each of the four pods as well as each team's permanent rival and alternate rival.

Before I get into how the conference championship game is determined, I'll note that the 15th and 16th teams chosen by me were Notre Dame and West Virginia. This can be reworked for other teams, so if you don't like those two being picked? Go do your own damn work with different teams!!!!! ;)

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP SELECTION PROCESS

In this hypothetical world of 16-teams and 4 pods, the process is pretty simple. Each year, two pods play each other to form a single division. Essentially you'll have two 8-team divisions where half the membership changes each season. The team with the best conference record from those two divisions will then meet in the Championship game.

The tiebreaker process can be found on the first tab, modified slightly for the existence of the smaller pods as well. I've even tested it with a dreaded eight-team tie to come out with a single team without using outside metrics such as rankings!

Questions? Comments? See some errors I made? Feel free to poke away!

Some things I plan on adding later include individual tabs for all sixteen teams so you can see their home and away schedules each year and possibly the six-year schedule for each pod.