ACC Realignment on the Horizon?

Via Warchant.com and quite a number of other sites, word is filtering out around the web that the ACC may re-align its football divisions.  This would presumably happen when the current ACC football schedule expires in 2015.

Boston College and Maryland would be moving from the Atlantic to the Coastal with Miami and Georgia Tech moving from the Coastal to the Atlantic.  If so, an ACC North and an ACC South would essentially be created…and ironically UNC and Duke would become members of the northern contingent and State and Wake being part of the southern side of the league.

Gobblercountry.com
Here’s what the re-aligned ACC would look like:

ACC Atlantic (ACC South, aka the Rebel Division)
Florida State
Miami (FL)
Georgia Tech
Clemson
NC State
Wake Forest

ACC Coastal (ACC North, aka the Damn Yankee Division)
Boston College
Virginia Tech
North Carolina
Duke
Virginia
Maryland

WARNING: this is nothing but a rumor at this point, albeit a widespread one that seems to have some legs.  We’re just passing it on for your consideration.

I do have reason to question the rumor’s accuracy, because if it comes to pass in this form,  the possibility of Miami and Florida State meeting in an ACC Championship (aka John Swoffford’s Wet Dream) would be impossible.  That alone makes me wonder if this will happen.

Future Opponents General

50 Responses to ACC Realignment on the Horizon?

  1. Gene 03/11/2009 at 5:10 PM #

    I vote for contraction. Adding Miami, Va. Tech and BC hasn’t helped us as a football conference. We were a B-league football conference for years, with a few occassional good teams popping up, like Ga. Tech and Clemson.

    We added FSU when they were at their zenith and that got everyone else interested in football. I think we’ve maxed out on whatever “juice” the league got from FSU regarding football. I don’t see Marlyand, Clemson, or anyone else becoming football powerhouses, the way So. Cal., under Carrol, has become.

    Right now, shrink the league back down, and have everyone play everyone else once a year.

    I just can’t see ACC schools competing for titles, the way the Big 12 and SEC Schools do, every year.

    That’d mean some three or four teams, would have to play themselves into the top ten or so on an annual basis.

    Bowden may get one or two more good years at FSU, like Joe Paterno just got at PSU, but otherwise I don’t see FSU taking off again. Miami has hopes and dreams of being what they were in the 1980’s and 1990’s, but I don’t know if they can get “it” back. As we’ve seen with our beloved men’s basketball program, once a program goes down, it’s not always guaranteed to come back up.

    Va. Tech’s good only because of Beamer and I don’t know who they’ll hire as a successor, who could carry on what Beamer’s built.

    Let’s see how a young, rebuilding, BC does in football the next few years. They’ve had some good years before O’Brien and good teams, but they’ve never been a Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio state, sort of elite program.

  2. UpstateSCWolfpack 03/11/2009 at 5:38 PM #

    I say do away with the divisions, and play nine ACC games a year. Rotate everyone each season, and do away with the rivalry games. Yes that would mean we would not play a the tarholes every year but so what, we should be playing the dookies more often then we do now. And what is the deal with basketball, why is that since expansions we have only played the dookies and clem’s son one a year?

  3. redfred2 03/11/2009 at 5:45 PM #

    I’m a Neanderthal, I didn’t care for expansion when it happened, I didn’t believe it was EVER going to be good for ACC BB, I can’t say that I am especially fond of the person who put it all together in the first place, so can’t help but chuckle a little with all of this recent crapola taking place.

    WARNING: Conspiracy theory to follow…

    I have always thought… that someone else knew…that the addition of nothing but traditionally strong FB programs…would provide some misdirection for certain fans at other ACC universities…but would also readily fund…as well as protect…the status quo/hierarchy in ACC BB as well.

    Might not be going exactly according to plan at the moment, but was he right? Is his hair always perfect? I’d say so.

  4. wufpup76 03/11/2009 at 6:25 PM #

    “Va. Tech’s good only because of Beamer and I don’t know who they’ll hire as a successor, who could carry on what Beamer’s built.”

    ^I would imagine the job may go to D Coordinator Bud Foster, who has been with Beamer and VT for a long time – if Foster is still there. Foster has been a pretty intergal part of their (really good) D – though he has no head coaching experience.

  5. Noah 03/11/2009 at 6:40 PM #

    ACC expansion was necessary after three of the teams hijacked the rest of the conference and said they would leave if the league DIDN’T expand.

  6. 61Packer 03/11/2009 at 7:06 PM #

    I don’t understand why the league had to be split in half in football in the first place. The current setup makes it possible to beat your entire division but not make it to the title game. So much for being the best in your division. I especially dislike the killing of rivalry games like State-Duke, who went 5 years before playing again last fall.

    I say let’s play everybody in our conference, all 11, and have one good nonconference game or two (add a 13th game if need be). I just don’t understand why we don’t play the teams in our own conference yet can play every obscure team I’ve never heard of year after year. I pay too much money to see the crappy nonconference games we’ve had at Carter-Finley the past few years. I was at Michigan (as a UM fan because my kid is there) when App State came in, and I was here when Akron came in. Why in the world do you want to host nonconference games which can ruin your season (and more in UM’s case) if you don’t win them? And when you do win them, you accomplish absolutely NOTHING by beating someone you’re supposed to walk all over.

    If the league officials have to re-align the league again, then split it State-Wake-UNC-Duke-Clemson-FSU in the Atlantic and BC-Maryland-Va Tech-UVA-Ga Tech-Miami in the Coastal. That keeps rivalries intact and makes more sense geographically.

  7. buttPACKer 03/11/2009 at 7:12 PM #

    noah,

    who were the extortionists?

  8. jamieinkorea 03/11/2009 at 7:34 PM #

    Still…

    Would a setup like this really surprise anyone with Jackass Swafford in the driver’s seat?

  9. BladenWolf 03/11/2009 at 8:06 PM #

    “Any realignment should be done by trying to juggle the twin priorities of maintaining natural rivalries while keeping both leagues relatively balanced.”

    “If the league officials have to re-align the league again, then split it State-Wake-UNC-Duke-Clemson-FSU in the Atlantic and BC-Maryland-Va Tech-UVA-Ga Tech-Miami in the Coastal. That keeps rivalries intact and makes more sense geographically.”

    ^^Both nail it on the head in my opinion. Too many negatives with a north-south divisional system as proposed.

    Completely kills balance and a couple of backyard rivalries to boot. This makes this realignment scenario seem highly problematic.

    I would see the proposed South Division champion whippin’ ass most years. Fla. State, Miami, and Clemson; then throw in the PACK, Ga. Tech, and a resurgent Wake Forest…all in the same division? WTF?

    The North has VT, BC, and Maryland as their top three? WTF?

    But the strongest point so far is that we play enough games during the regular season that we can play the entire conference once through if we eliminate meaningless OOC games and season openers against Gardner Web.

  10. wolfpack95 03/11/2009 at 8:20 PM #

    Geographic divisions make better sense than the mish mash division that the ACC currently has.
    I look forward to these changes if they are made.

  11. BSIE80 03/11/2009 at 8:29 PM #

    Lets compromise:
    FNC Division
    UM/FS
    UNC/Wake/Duke/NCSU

    VGMMSC Division
    Virginia
    VT
    GT
    Maryland
    BC
    CU

    This way we play all NC teams every yr.

    You have the Florida/NC division winner against all the other states.

  12. Ed89 03/11/2009 at 8:51 PM #

    Get rid of the extremes on the north and south — Miami and BC, and play everyone once. You’d also be able to play home and away against everyone in basketball. It will never happen, but with the current number of games a 10 team conference makes more sense than 12.

  13. Wolf Dog 03/11/2009 at 9:02 PM #

    ACC had no choice but to expand. We would be the Big East conference of football if not. I think FSU and Ga Tech could have jumped ship.

    For now everyone happy. But I could see Blue belly Swafford trying to shake things up. But in 2015 who knows what will happen. ACC might not be what it is today as far as same teams. Sec could drop Vandy for a Miami or FSU one day, who knows? ACC may drop BC and add someone else. BC is really out of the loop and a school on the way down.

    My personal feeling is Swafford will move to drop Duke and add another school the day K leaves Duke.

  14. Wolf Dog 03/11/2009 at 9:07 PM #

    Forget I got a friend that claims inside info on the SEC. He claims SEC ideal future plans would be to expand into NC and Va. markets or getting the Miami market would be wonderful. Dropping a Miss and a Vandy for NCSUorUNC and VA or Va Tech would be a great for TV revenue.

    I never doubt for a minute that conferences and schools are looking out for themselves first.

  15. highstick 03/11/2009 at 9:25 PM #

    UNC in the SEC would be a travesty! They’d get their butts wiped weekly during football season!

  16. Wolf Dog 03/11/2009 at 9:48 PM #

    highstick, money talks and UNC used to getting their butts kicked in football.

    Here’s what I see a major probabilty on a national scale in the future that has boucned around by some around the country. The scrampling of super conferences was supposedly made because schools were protecting themselves because “football” schools been wanting to break away from the NCAA for years. Many think sooner or later greed will totally change college sports as we know it.

    Here’s the way it works. Form a Super league from the existing BCS conferences. They break away from NCAA and neogatiate their own national TV contract. AD’s from ND, UNC-Swafford, and Syr lead the way. Conference looks like something like this. PSU, Syr, UNC, Florida, Texas, Alabama, Ohio State, Southern Cal, Mich, TN, ND, and LSU. Many see more like 24 teams broke into 2 conferences. The TV contract breaks all records. Conference champion is determined by championship game and declared national champion by media poll. Goal is to eventually compete as a pro league like the NFL. Players don’t lose egibility, eventally get paid. Its a money making bonaza colleges are already headed to. With 5 million dollars head coaching salaries many say the spark that could set this off is the soon coming day when a judge declares college football is not an amatuer or non-profit game and the NCAA cannot prevent players from getting paid.

    Something like this might be what we looking at in 2015?

  17. ryebread 03/11/2009 at 11:46 PM #

    Let me play the devil’s advocate here. If they adopt this for basketball too, then I’d be perfectly fine with it. Putting Miami and FSU in the same division in football also makes basketball less able to resist a Duke/UNC argument. I actually think the divisions are a good thing — particularly for basketball. The coaches don’t want any more than 16 conference games and the divisions allow for 5 home and homes paired with 6 alternating year games. Yes, I would miss UNC at home every year, but theoretically we’d split UNC and Duke in opposing years. Our path to 1/2 of the top in the conference would go through Wake Forest (which isn’t bad at all). This would help NC State in its best sport, so I don’t see it as a bad thing for us.

    Truthfully, we should do away with divisions. We should remove BC (Big East can take another team), go to 11, bag the flop of a championship game and get back to everyone playing everyone in every sport. The league will have benefited from Miami and VT’s addition and gotten rid of the albatross that is BC. I know it won’t happen, but one can always dream.

  18. waxhaw 03/12/2009 at 6:31 AM #

    It’s possible that we could see “super conferences”, paid athletes and less NCAA control. However, there is no way the ACC is leading the charge on that.

    I’d guess the talk on realignment is just talk at this point. I’d guess travel cost is the major issue. Also, I’m sure UNC-CH’s are salivating at a shot at that football alignment.

    Hopefully, we will err towards tradition for once and keep things the same. Move the football championship to Charlotte and be done with changes.

  19. Wolf74 03/12/2009 at 6:34 AM #

    For football, this is Swofford protecting UNC at its finest. That is all I can say.

    As for basketball, I have been saying all along, if they cann’t play everyone twice, then they should have two divisions and each divisional team should play each other twice and every team in the other division once. Then in the ACC tournament, each division would be seeded in their own divisional bracket based on record. In the championship the two divisional winners would play.

  20. MatSci94 03/12/2009 at 10:28 AM #

    “We should remove BC (Big East can take another team), go to 11, bag the flop of a championship game and get back to everyone playing everyone”

    The problem is that the championship game was added to get the current TV contract. Without that game, we have much less TV money coming in (how much less, I don’t know). You can’t have the champ game without 12 teams.

    How much less the contract would have been? I have no idea.

  21. packalum44 03/12/2009 at 11:03 AM #

    “ACC expansion was necessary after three of the teams hijacked the rest of the conference and said they would leave if the league DIDN’T expand.”

    Whom do you refer to and where would they have gone? Sounds like a bluff.

    Whether we like it or not, this was all about money and we had to compete with Jones’s. We are better off with a larger league. Those who are upset…all wounds heal over time.

    “My personal feeling is Swafford will move to drop Duke and add another school the day K leaves Duke.”

    Drop the most successful BB school of last 20 years and 3 championships from the ACC…ain’t happening.

  22. Noah 03/12/2009 at 1:20 PM #

    Whom do you refer to and where would they have gone? Sounds like a bluff.

    Georgia Tech, Clemson and FSU. Dave Glenn had a guy on his Saturday morning show when they were still debating whether to expand or not. The guest laid out where the push for expansion was coming from. He said, “This is GOING to happen. The only details that have to be worked out are which teams will be involved.”

    He was right.

  23. Wolf Dog 03/12/2009 at 1:21 PM #

    packalum44. A group of Ads were very much pressuring Swafford. That has been a much accepted fact. The ad at Ga tech was one of the lead dogs and FSU was the tail wagging the dog in football. Swafford had most of the league behind him with Duke and UNC leading the way against expansion and State on the fence. Hard to imagine our AD being unable to give a clear view or opinion on the issue, considering he knows it all in media interviews. Of course we ended up voting for it and the Va. legislature forced Va. to vote expansion only if it included Va. Tech. Poor Syracuse football still has not recovered from being left out.

  24. redfred2 03/12/2009 at 5:44 PM #

    Now that this is being brought up again, I do remember NC State being on the fence about it. Of course, when there is a decision to be made, what else would anyone have ever expected from good ol’ NC State.

  25. ChiefJoJo 03/14/2009 at 6:01 PM #

    I have always liked a north-south arrangement, like the SEC & Big 12. You might get some years where one division is top heavy, like the Big 12 South this past year… but I like going with the north/south regional aspect of this. Might save some $ on travel too, although that’s minor. Certainly, the ACC South would traditionally be the strongest.

Leave a Reply