So, I happened to look today at which teams Duke and UNC play twice to see who has a tougher slate of games.
Carolina gets a big break in that they
only play FSU (clearly the #3 team in the conference, in my mind)
once while Duke has to play the Noles twice. Of course, Carolina plays FSU on the road, which is considerably tougher than playing them in Chapel Hill.
Advantage UNC.
In my mind, there are 4 teams that make up the next tier of the conference -- Virginia, Va Tech, NC State, and Miami. I suppose some might add Clemson to that list, but I think they are not quite there. Here is how Carolina and Duke compare in terms of games against those teams--
NC State - UNC twice, at Duke
Virginia - UNC twice, at Duke
Va Tech - at UNC, Duke twice
Miami - UNC twice, at Duke
So, UNC plays this
middle tier 7 times, Duke only plays it 5 times. All of the solo games happen to be at home. I see this as a fairly significant advantage for Duke. The Devils have only one game on the road against the middle tier, Carolina has 3.
Advantage Duke.
By the way, if you want to include
Clemson in the pool of middle tier it balances things a bit. Clemson only faces the "big two" once each-- home vs Duke and at UNC (the Hell Freezes Over game).
Obviously, the other side of those matchups against the top and middle of the conference is games against the woeful bottom of the ACC.
Ga Tech (bad) - vs. Duke, at UNC
Maryland (really bad) - Duke twice, UNC twice
Wake (really, really bad) - Duke twice, vs. UNC
BC (maybe worst of all-time) - vs. Duke, at UNC
So, Duke gets one more game against these terrible teams.
Duke also gets 4 road games against these clubs. I see that as a real advantage. Road wins are precious in the ACC and Duke likely gets 4 relatively easy ones this year (yes, I probably just cursed us with that comment) while Carolina only gets 2.
The upshot of this note is to say that I think
Duke has a slight scheduling advantage in the ACC this year. It may be that Duke and Carolina are good enough so that the games against FSU are all that really matters, in which case Duke has a small disadvantage, but I think the middle tier games especially give Duke a small boost in the race for the regular season crown.
-Jason "it seems so rare that we get the good side of the rotating schedule... nice to see it happen this year" Evans