This is my first time making a forum topic on TKP. I hope it's not to boring and I'm in interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on the matter. Here it goes.
I may have an answer to the scheduling issues everybody is having. Instead of doing away with the divisions and making the NCAA change the way they do business why couldn't the ACC work within the boundaries of legislation and keep two divisions and just rotate teams in and out of divisions every couple of years to keep a home and home series with every school every 2 years. When you need a solution and can not change the box you are confined to it is time to change the contents of the box to fit everybody's needs and make everybody happy. So in wondering about this it would technically make the ACC an entirely new conference every 3 years. Make it mandatory to play 8 league games 6 division games and 2 cross division games every year. Keep 2 Rivalry games every year. As a Hokie fan I would like to keep UVA and Miami on our schedule every year. I could care less about GT. So on the years when they aren't in the division with VT they are the automatic cross division games. And would also make it so Clemson and FSU aren't always in the same Division so they could play in the ACC-title game. The scheduling opportunities are limitless under these circumstances and the ACC can still keep the title game with no red tape from NCAA. It's time to pioneer the change instead of following the leader to fix these issues. I'm writing this at 4:30 am and this probably makes no sense.
Comments
My schedule fix: 16 teams, 4 pods
Play:
ACC North:
BC
Syracuse
Pitt
Uconn
ACC Mid Atlantic
VT
UVA
ND
UL
ACC Carolina
UNC
NCst
Wake
Duke
ACC South
Clemson
GT
FSU
UM
This is an idea that's been thrown around a bit, but it is preicated on the NCAA changing their rule about conference championships.
But, +1 for the awesome graphic. Also, LOL at how UConn is the most pixelated one, even though it's the smallest logo.
What are the current NCAA rules? only one post season in conference game? ACC could also bring in more cash this way. That's 8 additional games.
Pixelated UConn is the result of my fantastic photoshop skills haha
Should replace that UConn logo with a Naval Academy logo. Continuity through the mid-atlantic, plus it would help bring ND into the fold as an official fully
As an Annapolis native, I would absolutely LOVE to see the Midshipmen in the ACC. But I don't think that will ever happen.
That would be awesome to go to an away game there. Annapolis bars are pretty decent. Stopped through there the night before I went to an O's/Phillies game last year.
hmm... this could be interesting. Switch a couple teams around at the start to set it up so that each team plays their primary rival as a permanent crossover, and then every year have one team switch divisions with its crossover opponent, or possibly 2.
This could be a really good solution to 16-team conferences: split the teams into 4-team "pods" based on rivalries, put 2 teams from each pod in each division, and have one pod switch divisions every year. Play 9 games: each of the 3 teams in your pod, and the half of each of the other pods that are in your division for that year. Swap 2 pods each year, in such a pattern that over any 4-year period, you play each team in your pod 4 times, and EVERY other team in the conference twice, one home and one away.
Sorry for the walltext, but here is an example I thought up below:
A1: Duke
A2: UNC
A3: NC State
A4: Wake Forest
B1: FSU
B2: Miami
B3: Clemson
B4: GT
C1: VT
C2: UVA
C3: Louisville
C4: [WVU, ND, some other addition]
D1: BC
D2: Syracuse
D3: Pitt
D4: [UConn, Cincy, some other addition]
The main downside I see from this is confusion from the divisions changing annually. I know while pretty much all of us know who is in the Atlantic or the Coastal, there's a lot of fans out there who really don't know yet, and pretty much everyone outside of the ACC probably doesn't care (can you name who's in the Leaders division? Didn't think so.)
Thoughts?
EDIT: revised table for readability
EDIT2: Table looks different in Preview than in thread, there's actually space between the columns in preview. Another edit to try to make it better in the thread.