ACC Question | Syracusefan.com

ACC Question

Vzorange

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Is it possible to only follow or route for half a conference. Let's say Uconn moves over eventually and assume ND/Rutgers/Penn St are 16th team. The ACC 'North' in may have a nice home/away schedule with BC/UConn/Pitt/???/MD/VT/VA.

Are we setting ourselves up for the inevitiable ... "BC deserves a bid over Clemson because they had a tougher schedule in the 'North' and/or the ACC 'South' isn't nearly as tough as the ACC 'North' " ... looks like there could be rivalries between schools AND divisions that I don't think exist in the conferences that have 2 divisions now like the SEC ... I for one might watch BC/UCONN with interest and really could care less about most of the 'South' games other then Duke/NC.

To me this feels more like the old 'Big East' vs old 'ACC' which actually is pretty interesting dynamic.

Can I still hate the old ACC by not liking the ACC 'South' - does that count? I really like the move but I'm struggling to figure out how to still despise the ACC at the same time.

Go Orange ... Go 'North' .. not sure what to make of this yet.
 
I hope they make the divisions by geography and I hope the scheduling favors interdivision play, to help foster rivalries not only between the division schools, but also between the divisions.

The coolest thing about the ACC could be the tremendous potential rivalries that could develop along geographical lines. North vs South Civil War in athletics. It is something that only the ACC is capable of doing, and I hope it happens. Could make for some great trash talk and conference interest...want to get all of NYS behind Syracuse? Make it a North vs South thing.
 
I love that Pittsburgh came with SU. By the ACC taking to NORTHERN BE teams, it made a commitment to a conference covering the dearth of the eastern seaboard. Additionally, it created a more even set of geographic rivals for all the teams involved in both the old an new expansion. Awesome.
 
Carolina fan here. I don't know what kind of system they'll use going forward, but ACC basketball doesn't have divisions. Each school gets 2 permanent rivals that you will always play 2x. The rest of the conference schedule is filled with games from the rest of the schools.

I've heard mention of a potential 4 pod system (assuming 16 teams). You play each team in your pod 2x and the other teams 1x each for a total of 18 games.
 
Carolina fan here. I don't know what kind of system they'll use going forward, but ACC basketball doesn't have divisions. Each school gets 2 permanent rivals that you will always play 2x. The rest of the conference schedule is filled with games from the rest of the schools.

I've heard mention of a potential 4 pod system (assuming 16 teams). You play each team in your pod 2x and the other teams 1x each for a total of 18 games.

There will definitely be two divisions (North and South?) in football as the ACC already uses a two division system. As jello stated, the question is whether we will continue the current system in basketball or go to the 4 pod system. Obviously, the latter would be predicated on adding two more teams. If we remain at 14 teams, the present system will probably be maintained. Either way, each team will have at least two traditional rivals that you play a home and away series with every year. While other teams have won national titles in the past(Maryland '02 the latest), UNC and Duke have had to carry the ACC banner in basketball for too long. I believe there are only three basketball coaches in the conference that have been at their present school longer than three years so they're going through a learning curve but some of those schools with tradition appear to be on the rise again. It will be good to have some very good programs added to the mix. Looking forward to forming some new rivalries.

And yes, you will have some of the North vs South thing going on but it definitely won't be confined to that. Duke will always be UNC's biggest rival and if UConn joins the conference, I imagine they will be SU's biggest rival.
 
4 Pods will not happen imo. It'll be a North Vs South thing. Yanks Vs Rebs.. Just not sure how Virginia might get tossed in with the Yanks... But it's kinda funny isn't it?
flags_rifle.gif
 
I used to pull for Big East teams outside of conference, though I know plenty of posters here did not. I feel like I can finally relate to this crowd, I've disliked the ACC for a long time and I can't change now.
 
Carolina fan here. I don't know what kind of system they'll use going forward, but ACC basketball doesn't have divisions. Each school gets 2 permanent rivals that you will always play 2x. The rest of the conference schedule is filled with games from the rest of the schools.

I've heard mention of a potential 4 pod system (assuming 16 teams). You play each team in your pod 2x and the other teams 1x each for a total of 18 games.

I've heard a lot of scuttlebutt about the 4 pods when they go to 16 teams. Actually makes a lot of sense and isn't hard to do. For arguments sake if you take UConn and Rutgers you'd have something like this;

Pod A
SU
Pitt (or you could flip flop Pitt and Rutgers)
UConn
BC

Pod B
Md
UVA
VT
Rutgers

Pod C
UNC
Duke
NCSt
WF

Pod D
Miami
FSU
GT
Clemson

Like you said, for basketball, play everyone in your Pod 2x and everyone else 1x. Rotate home and away each year for the games versus other Pods.

Football gets a little trickier but isn't impossible. Also depends on whether you play 8 or 9 conference games. For 8 games, play everyone in your Pod then it could be some random rotating 5 teams, or it could be all the teams from another Pod and 1 random team. 9 games is easier by just playing everyone in your Pod, then everyone in another Pod then 2 teams from another Pod. The following year, you play the 6 teams you didn't play this year from the other Pods.
 
I've heard a lot of scuttlebutt about the 4 pods when they go to 16 teams. Actually makes a lot of sense and isn't hard to do. For arguments sake if you take UConn and Rutgers you'd have something like this;

Come on, Bees. We all know you are a closet Rutgers fan, but stop pretending that the ACC will have anything to do with them.
 
If they do the North/South divisions, will the "east coast bias" become "northeast bias"?
 
Bee's - the 4 pods you laid out would have potentially 5 of 8 teams that could be top 10 teams in the country in 2 pods and 2 pods that really ... well ... are from from good. At least with the north/south outline you could have a chance at more balance talent wise. I for one vote for the N/S divisions and let that rivalry build between 8 teams in each vs the other 8. 4 pods ehhh not so much.

Maryland could go unbeaten in POD 'B' but if they were in POD 'A' or 'C' might only win one or two games.

Good thing I don't have a vote.
 
Pods A and C are elite conferences unto themselves and Pods B and D are mid-majors. I don't see it working this way. I'm curious about the "traditional rivalry" thing they currently have. The problem with doing that is that presumably all the existing ACC teams already have their two rivals established. So do you just have Pitt and Syracuse play each other 4 times a year?? If the ACC is truly serious about this expansion they are going to have to integrate these 2 (or maybe eventually 4) teams into the conference. I don't think you do that by isolating them in some Pod far from the rest of the conference.

For us Syracuse basketball fans (not football fans and not business people), the only advantage of this move to the ACC is getting regular games with Duke and UNC. Unfortunately, there will be a lot of traditional thinking that will prevent those games from happening more than once per year. It will be very hard to build rivalries that way. Heck we could have scheduled non-conference games with those two teams each year and gotten all the ACC benefits AND all the Big East benefits.

On the other hand, you have to think that the UNC - Pitt - Duke - Syracuse quartet will provide the most sought after TV games. ESPN will no doubt want to get as many games out of the combo of those four teams as possible. They will be the most valuable product the basketball side of the conference has to offer. You have to think whatever alignment or scheduling the conference comes up with will take this into account. I sure hope so because I am really seeing this basketball conference as a major dog outside of the big 2.
 
I also don't see this pod idea coming into play. The North/South division might work out and be balanced, but they might just add one of SU/Pitt to the current Atlantic/Coastal divisions they have in place right now.

I could also see SU developing a new rivalry with Maryland - we recruit heavy in their back yard
 
Pods A and C are elite conferences unto themselves and Pods B and D are mid-majors. I don't see it working this way. I'm curious about the "traditional rivalry" thing they currently have. The problem with doing that is that presumably all the existing ACC teams already have their two rivals established. So do you just have Pitt and Syracuse play each other 4 times a year?? If the ACC is truly serious about this expansion they are going to have to integrate these 2 (or maybe eventually 4) teams into the conference. I don't think you do that by isolating them in some Pod far from the rest of the conference.

For us Syracuse basketball fans (not football fans and not business people), the only advantage of this move to the ACC is getting regular games with Duke and UNC. Unfortunately, there will be a lot of traditional thinking that will prevent those games from happening more than once per year. It will be very hard to build rivalries that way. Heck we could have scheduled non-conference games with those two teams each year and gotten all the ACC benefits AND all the Big East benefits.

On the other hand, you have to think that the UNC - Pitt - Duke - Syracuse quartet will provide the most sought after TV games. ESPN will no doubt want to get as many games out of the combo of those four teams as possible. They will be the most valuable product the basketball side of the conference has to offer. You have to think whatever alignment or scheduling the conference comes up with will take this into account. I sure hope so because I am really seeing this basketball conference as a major dog outside of the big 2.

In the pod system example above, SU would play the other three teams in their pod twice and every other team once during the regular season in basketball. You would play the teams outside of your pod at your place one year and on the road the next. The regional pods would probably be aligned as shown above.

The ACC currently plays 8 conference games and 4 OOC games during the regular season in football. I don't think the pod system would work for football. I imagine they would continue with an Atlantic and Coastal Divisions and split the teams as equably as possible for competition purposes. With 12 teams in the conference, you played the other 5 teams in your division every year and rotated 3 teams from the other division in each year. I'm not sure how they would handle 16 teams. Perhaps add another conference game and make it 9 with 3 OOC games? Who knows? One of the problems with mega conferences, especially in football, is the limited number of games played which makes scheduling a beotch.
 

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