At the Louisville presser today, Swofford said the Louisville will take Maryland's spot in the Atlantic Division and everything else would remain the same. I tried my hand at updating the divisions with the goal of keeping traditional football rivalries, while maximizing appealing matchups.
I wanted to make sure the following teams played these opponents (rivals).
Boston College
Clemson: Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State
Duke: North Carolina
Florida State: Clemson, Miami
Georgia Tech: Clemson, Virginia Tech
Louisville
Miami: Florida State, Virginia Tech
NC State: Clemson, North Carolina
North Carolina: Duke, NC State
Pitt
Syracuse
Virginia: North Carolina, Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia
Wake Forest
Given that, these are the divisions I came up with.
| Dinich Division | Chop Block Division |
|---|---|
| Louisville | Syracuse |
| Miami | Florida State |
| NC State | Clemson |
| North Carolina | Duke |
| Pitt | Boston College |
| Virginia | Wake Forest |
| Virginia Tech | Georgia Tech |
I think they are pretty balanced.
Comments
Dunno, the Dinich division seems a little weak. 3 of the 4 teams* that seem to have dominated the ACC in recent history are Chop Block... I guess you're assuming Miami and UNC will stop cheating?
*Other than freak years by Wake and BC, it's only been VT, GT, FSU, and Clempson in the ACCCG
I thought Chop Block looked too weak
considering the three weakest teams in the league, Syracuse/Wake/Duke, are all in the same division.
The Dinnich Division would have uva and..... Louisville? NCSU? UNC? Miami? Looking at the top, the Chip Block has the two strong teams but has three weak teams. The Dinnich Division would have all solid teams....and uva.
Dunno, it's like SEC East vs SEC West - West is so strong at the top and the rest sucks, but East is more uniform. And which division usually comes out smelling like roses? West.
GT
Would be our cross divisional opponent?
Yes
I wanted Georgia Tech to play Virginia Tech every year, plus play FSU, they have a little bit of history. GT-FSU has the potential to be at least a 3:30 game in most years. Better exposure for the league.
No Adelson Division?
what concerns me more is the we were put in the Dinich, that just seems like it would be bad luck to me lol
I have one change... Pitt and Syracuse would almost certainly rather play each other than BC or Louisville.
Or, why not go the route Tom O'Brien suggested before he was canned, and split into Old vs. New, with the 7 remaining charter members of the ACC in one division and the 7 "newcomers" (including Florida State) in the other.
In that case, the only of your rivalries that would be broken up is either the Battle of the Techs or the Commonwealth Cup, and the only reason Georgia Tech is our "rival" is because we're the only two teams to have ever won the Coastal.
Newp
Even with FSU in the "New" that idea still blows donkey balls
Geesh....
You couldn't come up with a better name for the division??
my idea
Winner of the Football Division is the ACC champion, winner of the Basketball division isn't.
Lacrosse
UVA must be the Lacrosse branch of the football division
Switch
UVA for BC and Louisville for Pitt, then you'll have it correct. UVA for BC is obvious IMO, Louiville is nuts for b'ball with football being a recent hobby. Same for Pitt, that town is all football all the time.
East/West
West
Clemson
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Louisville
Miami
Pittsburgh
Virginia Tech
East
Boston College
Duke
North Carolina
NC State
Syracuse
Virginia
Wake Forest
Cross Rivalries: BC-Pitt, Duke-Miami, UNC-Clemson, NC State-Florida State, Syracuse-Louisville, Virginia-Virginia Tech, Wake Forest-Georgia Tech.
May seem like a murderers row in the west, but I'm just thinking about this from a pure PR perspective. One of the reasons SEC teams always get so hyped (other than the fact that they beat everyone else) is that they "play an SEC schedule." It could be very beneficial to the ACC to have one of the toughest divisions in football, at least on paper.
It also creates more match-ups likely to be 3:30 or 8 p.m. games, thus giving more exposure to the league and its key match-ups. #NONOONKICKS
You have more natural geographic rivals playing each other every year with these divisions as well.
From an ACC Championship Game perspective, I'm guessing 9 times out of 10 you'll have either FSU, Clemson or VT from the West and the East is there for the taking for NC State or UNC, if the Heels aren't on probation. Would make for good attendance in Charlotte.
The ACC would never do anything to prevent Miami and FSU from being cross-divisional rivals.
Big Least vs. ACC
How about keeping all the old Big East schools together, and we can split Wake and Duke.
A: Syracuse, B.C., Miami, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Louisville, Wake
B: FSU, Clemson, Virginia, Ga. Tech, UNC, NC State, Duke
Perfect Solution
East - UGA, UF, USC, Vandy, Mizzou, TN, UK.....VT
West - BAMA, LSU, aTm, Miss State, Old Miss, Ark, AU..... NCST
Pods
East 1
UGA
UF
UK
Vandy
East 2
VT
USC
Mizzou
Tenn
West 1
Bama
Auburn
aTm
Ole Miss
West 2
LSU
Arkansas
Miss State
NC ST
I think that kind of makes sense?
Yup
Makes perfect sense to me. Round robin the E1 W1 and W2. Be sure to maintain traditional rivalries. Might not always get perfect home and homes that alternate every year, but its no like we would be downgrading our home games. Sure beats GT, A.Peay, BGSU, Duke, FSU and UVa being a "good" home schedule season.
Honestly, the SEC will make it much more difficult to win the national championship, but it would be a step forward that would preserve the excitement of Virginia Tech Football. Learning curve...sure. Long term solution... absolutely.
I would *love* to play Tennessee every year... assuming we won. My sister is a Vol
why would mizzou be in the east and ncsu in the west?
Can't we just start a 'Transition Period' next for the VT4SEC movement where we switch out BC for Tennessee on our schedule and it can count as a "conference" game?
Why can't we do this? This should totally be allowed. Natural Rivals!
Ninja Swoff needs to make this happen for us.