ACC Scheduling After Pitt & Syracuse Joins

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The ACC has released information on the future scheduling plans for the conference after the addition of Pitt And Syracuse. You can read the linked article for more detailed information but here are the basics.

Football
Syracuse will join the Wolfpack in the Atlantic division and Pitt will be in the Coastal.

The conference schedule will move up to 9 games. Each team will play the 6 other teams in their division and 3 games in the opposite division (1 against the primary crossover partner and 2 rotating).

Men’s & Women’s Basketball
The basketball schedule will be going to 18 games. Each school will have a primary partner that they will play home and away and will play the other 12 schools at least once on a rotating schedule. NC State’s primary partner will be Wake Forest. Yes, that means NC State and North Carolina will no longer play twice a year home and away.

Olympic Sports
Other than baseball, teams will play every school at least once. The ACC will also start a gymnastics conference championship, with the addition of Pitt the conference will now have 4 teams that participate in gymnastics.

About WV Wolf

Graduated from NCSU in 1996 with a degree in statistics. Born and inbred in West "By God" Virginia and now live in Raleigh where I spend my time watching the Wolfpack, the Mountaineers and the Carolina Hurricanes as well as making bar graphs for SFN. I'm @wvncsu on the Twitter machine.

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75 Responses to ACC Scheduling After Pitt & Syracuse Joins

  1. IMFletcherWolf 02/03/2012 at 1:30 PM #

    What’s the purpose of being in a conference with our rivals if we don’t play them? We can play them once a season from another conference. I have never been a “go the SEC” guy, but what’s the difference now?

    The ACC truly is transforming into the Big East and it makes me sick.

  2. ErB 02/03/2012 at 1:33 PM #

    We will play UNC twice a year every third year. With our luck that will also be the year we play Duke twice.

  3. Wulfpack 02/03/2012 at 1:38 PM #

    This sucks.

  4. ErB 02/03/2012 at 1:41 PM #

    This may be a dumb question, but is there a way to schedule an “OOC” game with an in conference opponent? For example, scheduling UNC twice, but only one counting towards each teams ACC record. Essentially just playing them for rivalries sake.

  5. jbpackfan 02/03/2012 at 1:52 PM #

    Our “rival” is not even a legit rival. UNC, Duke & Maryland are all bigger rivals than Wake. I am so ticked off about this. The ACC turned its back on what made it great. Swofford killed the ACC and should be ashamed.

  6. IMFletcherWolf 02/03/2012 at 1:52 PM #

    ^ Yes, I believe it is possible. Or it was in the past. Like the old Big Four Tournament – those games didn’t count toward the ACC standings.

  7. adriardi 02/03/2012 at 2:19 PM #

    This pretty much killed my liking of the ACC. I’m still not particularly for going to the SEC, but I’m not as against it now either. We keep getting pushed to the side…

  8. wolfie91 02/03/2012 at 2:23 PM #

    ErB, believe it or not, someone on IC suggested something along those lines – Williams and Gottfried scheduling each other once a year anyway.

  9. ryebread 02/03/2012 at 2:38 PM #

    Hmm.. Some surprises and some “not surprises” in looking at this.

    Football: The zipper was going to happen. I’m just shocked that Syracuse was separated from the Blues. I figured they’d get Syracuse for sure and the Atlantic would get even more stacked with Pitt. I think this works to our advantage.

    Basketball: I was hoping we’d split the conference into divisions, but that obviously was not happening. I’m not surprised that we lost UNC as a primary partner. The ACC (and ESPN) wants as many marketable games as possible. Getting Duke/UNC twice a year is far better from a $$$ perspective than getting State/UNC twice a year. Let’s face it, we’ve just not put up enough of a fight.

    Also, this preserves State/Wake, who actually have played the most games against one another. I think that’s a good thing for us. Short term, we can rack up some wins. As Dave Odom once said, it’s tough for both NC State and Wake to be good. This gives us a chance to directly hold them down. I actually think this is good for NC State as well.

    Playing pairs also will cut down on some travel costs and scheduling complexity. I can see scenarios where MD and Pitt travel together down to FSU and Miami. Once plays at FSU on Thursday night and at Miami on Sunday. The other would switch. The PAC12 has done this for years, and it really makes a lot of economic sense, particularly as the geographic footprint has grown.

    Overall: The most odd thing to me is that the playing partners and divisions aren’t consistent. NC State is a playing partner with Wake, but a divisional rival with UNC? Kind of weird. I am a little surprised they didn’t “zipper” both based on the playing partners. Outside of the Big 4 and Virginia schools, it pretty much already exists.

  10. VaWolf82 02/03/2012 at 2:46 PM #

    When Pitt and Syracuse join, each school will have one primary partner (Boston College and Syracuse; Clemson and Georgia Tech; Duke and North Carolina; Florida State and Miami; Maryland and Pitt; NC State and Wake Forest; Virginia and Virginia Tech).

    Just like I keep telling my wife…Damn I’m good!

    http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/archives/2011/12/18/14-guzinto-18/

  11. ryebread 02/03/2012 at 2:58 PM #

    VAWolf82: I know a lot of NC State fans are mad, but when you look at this thing from outside, those pairings really make a lot of sense. Maybe the only other one that made sense would be Duke/Wake and UNC/NC State. The latter makes more sense from a football perspective. Given that we aren’t following the pairings in football, then these probably make the most sense.

    I think this is unpopular, but I’d rather play Wake home and home in basketball than UNC. It’s more evenly matched and gives us a chance to get some more wins. We still get UNC at home 2 out of 3 years. This means we actually get to avoid getting our skulls kicked in @ UNC once out of every 3 years.

  12. wolfbuff 02/03/2012 at 3:01 PM #

    Somebody mentioned the old Big 4 tournament. If our ADs had any balls, we would bring that tournament back, negotiate our own TV deal, and keep all the revenue to ourselves. Stick it to the ACC.

  13. chris92heel 02/03/2012 at 3:11 PM #

    This is a goddamn travesty

  14. WV Wolf 02/03/2012 at 3:11 PM #

    Maryland really got screwed. They lost their annual home and home rivalry with Duke and got Pitt instead.

    Maryland and Pitt have played basketball 6 times. They haven’t played each other in 13 years and that was in the Puerto Rico Shootout. They last played a home and home series in 1980 and 1981. John Swofford and the ACC now has them as rivals. WTF?

  15. Prowling Woofie 02/03/2012 at 3:13 PM #

    I loved the Big 4 Tournament. Of course, I also loved the North-South Tournament, too.

  16. ryebread 02/03/2012 at 3:15 PM #

    Wolfbuff:

    ADs and coaches talk about “scheduling a 1:1 game outside of the conference” but that never happens. How many years have we hard that BS about Duke in football?

    I think we’d be better off bringing the Dixie Classic back under a different name. Let the Greensboro Colosseum hold it and bring in 4 of the top teams from around the country to play. With something like the Tobacco Road Classic, then if ACC teams played one another, then so be it.

  17. statemech 02/03/2012 at 3:18 PM #

    It’s obvious what we need to do.

    One-Man Wolfpack Conference (OMWC, or “ohm-whack”).

    Tell the “corporate pigs” we don’t need them or their stinkin’ money. Money’s for losers! Stick it to the man!!

  18. old13 02/03/2012 at 3:26 PM #

    “I think this is unpopular, but I’d rather play Wake home and home in basketball than UNC. It’s more evenly matched and gives us a chance to get some more wins. We still get UNC at home 2 out of 3 years. This means we actually get to avoid getting our skulls kicked in @ UNC once out of every 3 years.”

    I think there is an underlying assumption in that statement that the Pack will never be good again, that we have to partner with a school that is under the same assumption. I’d rather be playing the Cheats twice per season for the possible TV exposure as well as the rivalry. Hopefully one day the betting line will be under ten! After all, “To be the best, one has to beat the best.”

    Now, having said that, we all know this is being driven by football/$$$$$$$, not rivalries. This is a real shame IMO because the past Big Four competitions go away in most of the sports where it was really felt before. Can’t wait for Congress to weigh in on the BCS. It’s bad enough now without bigger lamebrains trying to “fix” it (so that nobody cares any more!)

  19. VaWolf82 02/03/2012 at 3:30 PM #

    VAWolf82: I know a lot of NC State fans are mad,

    Anyone that is mad is either stupid or hasn’t had a chance to think about the implications of adding two more teams.

    As I pointed out in the entry I linked, in a completely even schedule you would lose 8 games over a 13 year rotation. With a single primary partner, you lose 8 games over 12 years for the rotating partners….not alot of difference.

    Anyone that thought that UNC would be State’s single primary partner or that State would add Duke as a third primary partner, well….

  20. Howler 02/03/2012 at 3:34 PM #

    You want to see the lasting effect of twenty plus years of subpar athletic leadership? This is it. The Duke/UNC rivalry has completely eclipsed us ever since we let the News & Observer convince the school that commerce in shoes required drastic measures to be taken. And remember, we’re not done. When and if we try to fit two more teams into the conference, maybe we’ll have a home & home against Carolina every four or five years. And for the record, the statements I am reading about how this is a good thing because we are more competitive with Wake make me sick. Everett Case, Norm Sloan, and Jim Valvano are rolling over in their graves about now. We have just been officially relegated to permanent second class status in the ACC.

  21. pack76 02/03/2012 at 3:40 PM #

    This stinks! Swofford has stuck it to State again! I can’t believe Debbie or even our chancelor would agree to this. The SEC is looking more attractive. Let’s pursue it!

  22. pack76 02/03/2012 at 3:44 PM #

    I also don’t like the 9 game conference schedule. I guess it does keep us from scheduling the FCS teams. But, I like the 4 non-conference games.

  23. StateFans 02/03/2012 at 3:53 PM #

    If we played football in the SEC we could play UNC, Duke and Wake as our OOC games.

    Would be awesome…especially when we are playing them with the kinds of athletes that want to play against SEC competition instead of ACC

  24. Rick 02/03/2012 at 3:58 PM #

    This is why the “tradition” argument for staying in the ACC does not hold water.

    I guess it helps us to not have a guaranteed loss so it is hard to get too upset.

  25. wufpup76 02/03/2012 at 3:59 PM #

    Just … nothing.

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