Originally Posted by
brevity
It's probably been vaguely mentioned earlier in the thread, but no one has yet elaborated on how problematic it will be to schedule conference opponents when the conference has 16 teams. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the ACC keeps its 12 teams, and adds 4 more: West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, and Syracuse.
The conference might be divided into two 8-team divisions. Going by geography, it would look like this:
ACC North: Boston College, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech
ACC South: Duke, UNC, NC State, Wake Forest, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami
Not bad, for what it is. The 4 North Carolina schools stay together. But how does the football schedule work? There are 12 games in a regular season. If we use Pittsburgh as our point of reference, there would be 7 games against the rest of the ACC North, leaving 5 regular season games. Requiring them to play 4 games against the ACC South would mean that Pitt has only one nonconference game, which seems harsh and inflexible. Some may suggest 3, but the logistics of evenly distributing 8 teams (3 per season) would give me a headache. This leaves 2 teams, which looks like a sensible schedule if you isolate it to one season: 7 ACC North games, 2 ACC South games, 3 nonconference games.
The problem arises when you look beyond one season. Over the course of 4 years, Pitt's ACC South schedule could look like this:
Year 1: vs Duke, at Miami
Year 2: vs Georgia Tech, at NC State
Year 3: vs Florida State, at Clemson
Year 4: vs Wake Forest, at UNC
Or like this:
Year 1: vs Duke, at Miami
Year 2: vs Miami, at Duke
Year 3: vs Georgia Tech, at NC State
Year 4: vs NC State, at Georgia Tech
In the first scenario, a healthy 4-year player would at least face every ACC opponent, but would not experience any home-and-home series. The reverse is true of the second scenario. In both scenarios, that player would travel to Florida only once in his college career. Looking at it from a coaching or recruiting perspective, I doubt Pitt would find that appealing. What's the point of playing ACC football if your exposure to the Sunshine State is so limited?
Basketball footnote: if Pitt played every ACC North opponent twice and every ACC South opponent once, that's 22 conference games.
Another alternative is creating four 4-team divisions.
ACC Trenchcoat: Boston College, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pittsburgh
ACC Fleece: West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech
ACC T-Shirt: Duke, UNC, NC State, Wake Forest
ACC Sandals: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami
This makes more sense for basketball. Play division opponents twice and everyone else once: 6 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 18 games. But it solves none of the football problems above and adds a particularly thorny one for Pittsburgh -- it no longer gets to play West Virginia every year.