I know that the ACC has come out and said that they are not really interested in adding a 16th team to the conference but it got me thinking about what the conference could look like and here are some of the options I came up with. (for sake of assuming, Notre Dame would commit to a full schedule and the schedule remains at eight ACC games)
You would have a North and South Division instead of the Coastal v Atlantic. Clear up the nonsense there at least.
Each Division would be composed of eight teams and divided into four team sections:
The two North Sections would be:
Syracuse, Boston College, PennState(I know controversial but for lack of better teams), Notre Dame
Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Maryland, (would have been great to have WVU here and move Maryland to the other North Section)
The two South Sections would be:
North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest
Florida State, Miami, Clemson, Georgia Tech
My idea for the scheduling would be:
You play all three of the teams in your section every year, then you rotate the other sections on a three year cycle, which brings you to seven ACC games. The eighth ACC game would be from a dedicated cross division/cross section rival. Example, if Virginia Tech is playing the other North Section this year and their dedicated rivals were Syracuse and Miami, than their eighth game would be Miami as they are already playing Syracuse in the rotating section schedule. If Virginia Tech is playing the Miami section, than they would play Syracuse. If Virginia Tech is playing the North Carolina section, than they would play Syracuse. I think this would be a rotation that ensures you eventually play everyone in the conference in a three year period but also not destroy all of the current rivalries in the conference.
Let me know your thoughts and where you would go with the addition of a 16th team.
Rob
The sixteenth team schedule concept...
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Comments
the 4 team pod concept is very logical to me. you would rotate though the other teams in the league quicker than we do now and the tobacco road snobs would quit boohooing about how they dont play each other every year anymore.
The second south section would never happen
FSU, Miami, GT, AND Clemson? That's pretty much death row for them. I'm not really a fan of the 4 pod idea myself, but if it were to happen, I sincerely doubt it would look like this. Too many rivalries are wiped out honestly.
Which rivalries would this wipe out?
I guess one of the reasons I went with this is it seemed like the division of the sports that would most cut down travel and costs for non revenue sports the most by geographically separating them. It still allows for rivalry games such as Tech v Miami and Tech v UVA and Pitt v Syracuse, FSU v Miami, and these days the budding FSU v Clemson Which other big rivalries do you feel suffer in this format?
Just to name a few
UVA vs UNC, Miami vs Notre Dame, and the really old one and seemingly outdated one Pitt vs Penn State
For the ones you named.....
The only one of these that would not be possible would be Miami v Notre Dame if you made VT their cross division rival but my look hasnt had Miami playing Notre Dame every year anyway and they would still play every three years. You could make Pitt and Penn State the cross pod rival and UVA v UNC as the cross division rival. Would mean that UVA v UNC would only not happen once every five years.
Division champions might get confusing
I assume the Championship game would pit North vs. South, regardless of pods, but crowning a North (or South) champion in a year where the two pods barely play each other would be dicey at best. Imagine trying to pick between, say, VT and Notre Dame to represent the North, when they didn't play head to head, and hardly even have common opponents. Just a thought... though I do like the pods in a 16 team scenario.
Thats true....almost would need a semifinal matchup
to decide the Division champs. That could make the schedule pretty hectic. It would probably mean having the semifinals the first weekend of December and the Championship game the second weekend of December, but it would be good national exposure with the limited number of games, would offer Heisman hopefuls playing in the games the opportunity to showcase their stuff and be another bit to negotiate with ESPN to possibly get some of the third tier football rights back.