Orangeyes Daily Articles for Friday - for Football | Syracusefan.com

Orangeyes Daily Articles for Friday for Football

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Welcome to National Avocado Day!

Today we celebrate avocados! A fruit that grows on trees, avocados have a tough skin with a greenish or yellowish flesh inside, as well as a large seed. They can range in size from that of a hen's egg to up to about four pounds, depending on their variety. Some major varieties are Hass, Fuerte, Bacon, Zutano, Rincon, Mexican, Guatemalan, Booth 8, Booth 7, Lula, and Waldin. They are native to Mexico and to the area south of there down to the Andes Mountains.

The Aztecs are known to have eaten avocados. For a long period of time, avocados were only eaten in Central and South America and in the Caribbean, where they gained the name "alligator pear." In 1833, horticulturist Henry Perrine became the first to plant avocados in Florida. They were first planted in California in the 1880s. By the turn of the century, orchards were established, and avocados first gained commercial importance.

SU News

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SU football will seek exemption from Cuomo’s travel quarantine (PS; Mink)


Syracuse University will seek exemption from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s travel quarantine for athletes and staff who travel out of state for games.

Athletic director John Wildhack, citing a carve out in the governor’s order for professional sports, said the school hopes to piggyback off that language to avoid having to quarantine athletes and staff for two weeks upon returning to New York.

Without it, the school would have to make drastic changes to its travel schedule and attempt to fly in and out of states such as South Carolina, North Carolina and Indiana the same day as the game.

The governor’s order requires anyone who has traveled for more than 24 hours to a state with a high rate of new coronavirus cases to quarantine for 14 days. There are currently 34 states on the list, including several that fall within the footprint of the ACC.

The special request for exemption is one of several steps the university is taking to circumvent Covid-19 concerns while traveling for football and other sports this fall.

Syracuse will also significantly reduce its travel party size for football, and Wildhack raised the possibility of implementing a strict, shelter-in-place quarantine at the team hotel when traveling on the road.

Syracuse’s football traveling party typically takes a charter flight to road venues and stays overnight the day before the game.
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Orange Watch: ACC, Syracuse move 2020 football season forward - The Juice Online (the juice; Bierman)

Item: The ACC Wednesday announced its schedule plan for the delayed 2020 season, 10 conference games plus one non-league matchup to be determined, and the inclusion of Notre Dame into the league standings for this season. The recommendations from the athletic directors to the league’s Board of Directors, chaired by SU’s Kent Syverud, not only altered Syracuse’s list of upcoming opponents, but illustrated the determination and hope among administrators that somehow, even with the nationwide battle against COVID-19 not slowing down, a college football season can be pulled off on college campuses where the majority of the population is between the ages of 18-22.

Is it any surprise that with so much money at stake the Power Five conferences are steamrolling ahead with formal plans to play a nearly normal schedule in the pandemic-ravaged country?

As opposed to pulling the plug now until a tested vaccine can control the warp-speed spread of the disease, and weighing the risks and liability along with the financial rewards from large TV contracts, the plan is to start the season the week of Sept. 7, see if it become abbreviated at some point due to numerous positive tests of the virus among the group consisting of student-athletes, coaches, staff members, and other assorted support personnel.

There is no bubble available for student athletes mixed with the general student body on college campuses. These are not salaried professionals. College-aged students are going to do what college-aged students do; socialize, the exact opposite of the prescribed social distancing recommended to help curtail the virus’s spread.

Recent reports indicate that an off-campus party at Rutgers (the now canceled second opponent of the original 2020 schedule) this month yielded 15 positive test results among RU football players. There’s no reason to think that even with the protocols in place by the Orange athletic department and Dino Babers’ staff that something similar could take place on The Hill.

Syracuse has not publicly announced if any players have tested positive for COVID-19, instead sending its test reporting to the Onondaga County Health Department, leaving no sense of where the program stands in relation to its Power Five brethren.

What also leaves us scratching our head is that virtually every public comment, whether that be from commissioner John Swofford, Syverud, or AD John Wildhack includes a quote about the paramount importance of the health and safety of the student athletes, yet with the money at stake, it seems like rolling the dice.
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Syracuse football has third-worst odds to win ACC under new schedule (itlh; Adler)

Odds-makers don’t think that Syracuse football has much of a shot to capture the league trophy.

Syracuse football is near the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference as it pertains to new odds for league teams to capture a conference championship.

Per an article from 247Sports senior writer Brad Crawford that cites the latest odds from William Hill Casino for each ACC squad to come out on top in the league, well, the Orange isn’t faring so hot.

In fact, based on its brutal 2020 schedule that conference leaders unveiled on Wednesday, Syracuse football is tied for third with the worst odds among the ACC’s 15 members, including Notre Dame, to amount to the last crew standing after the league’s championship game in December.

Clemson, unsurprisingly, is the favorite to emerge victorious in the ACC, followed by Notre Dame at No. 2, Miami at No. 3, North Carolina at No. 4, Florida State and Virginia Tech tied at No. 5, Louisville at No. 7, Virginia, Pittsburgh and N.C. State tied at No. 8, Wake Forest at No. 11, Duke and the ‘Cuse tied at No. 12, Boston College at No. 14, and Georgia Tech at No. 15.

Here’s what the 247Sports piece had to say about Syracuse football. “The 2019 season was clearly a setback year for the Orange after the loss of Eric Dungey at quarterback. Coach Dino Babers brought preseason top-25 projections in some areas but an early blowout loss against Maryland saw that change. Syracuse struggled overall but found some late momentum with late-season wins over Duke and Wake Forest to build upon.”
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Syracuse Football: Notre Dame on board in ACC, to dismay of ‘Cuse fans (itlh; Adler)


A lot of Syracuse football fans aren’t happy about Notre Dame joining the ACC for the 2020 campaign.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has unveiled a historic schedule for Syracuse football and other league participants in the 2020 stanza, assuming a fall season is able to get played amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Notre Dame, often a top-10 to top-20 team and one of the most iconic football brands nationwide, is giving up its long-time independence in the sport to become an ACC member in football for the upcoming term.

The Orange will head to the Fighting Irish as part of the ‘Cuse 2020 calendar that the ACC announced on Wednesday and did Syracuse football no favors, with a brutal slate of road duels that also includes making visits to Clemson and North Carolina.

When I penned a recent column about ACC leaders reportedly weighing a 2020 fall-season option that would entail Notre Dame linking up with the league for just this campaign, a bevy of ‘Cuse fans voiced their displeasure with this possibility.

These fans say that the Fighting Irish, which is a member of the ACC for many other sports besides football, shouldn’t have the ability to link up with Syracuse and other conference peers for only this sole stanza.

Critics believe that the ACC is providing Notre Dame with a lifeline for 2020, when for years the Fighting Irish has enjoyed flexing its independent football muscle, and that irritates Orange fanatics to no end.
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Decision from ACC puts much of WMU football's nonconference schedule in jeopardy (westernherald.com; Berry)

Syracuse surely has the same clause in its contract with WMU...

Throughout the offseason in college football, programs and conferences have scrambled to adjust its fall schedules in hopes to be able to play a season as safely as possible amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, being roughly a month away from the games being scheduled to begin, adjustments are still being made from decision makers throughout the sport.

Western Michigan football has already had its non-conference schedule impacted a couple times this offseason. On Wednesday, that seems to be the case again for WMU as the Atlantic Coast Conference announced an 11-game schedule for each of its conference members, with each team being allowed only one out of conference game.

The decision from the ACC affects WMU's Week 4 game against Syracuse as the Orange were set to travel to Waldo Stadium on Sept. 26. The ACC announced that the lone nonconference matchups for each member school has to either be a home game or an in-state matchup, which would all but axe the WMU-Syracuse game.

“Today’s decision was made after months of thoughtful planning by numerous individuals throughout the conference,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. “The Board’s decision presents a path, if public health guidance allows, to move forward with competition. Our institutions are committed to taking the necessary measures to facilitate the return in a safe and responsible manner. We recognize that we may need to be nimble and make adjustments in the future. We will be as prepared as possible should that need arise.”

Western Michigan's Week 3 matchup at Notre Dame also may be in jeapordy with the ACC's announcement, as the Fighting Irish will join the conference for this season and play a 10-game ACC schedule while being eligible for the conference championship game.

Under the ACC's guidelines, the WMU-Notre Dame game scheduled for Sept. 19 could still take place since it is an Irish home game.

Notre Dame's only other out of conference home game is scheduled for Sept. 12 against Arkansas. Regionally, the WMU contest would make more sense for the Irish to go forth with as the Broncos only have to travel 68 miles to South Bend, as opposed to Arkansas, where it is an over 700 mile trip for the Razorbacks. Conferences seem to be trying to focus on limiting travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If the game in South Bend is canceled, it could cost the Broncos big time from a financial perspective, as WMU is set to receive $1.175 million from Notre Dame for that game. Amid the pandemic, it is unlikely the Irish would have to pay out based on two stipulations in the cancellation cause of the contract, obtained by MLive.

According to the clause, neither party will be considered to have breached the contract in the event of a cancellation under the circumstances of: "an act of God, national emergency, natural disaster, war, terrorism, civil unrest, or court order," or "the party becomes obligated, as a condition of athletic conference membership or affiliation (for football), to play a greater number of regular season football games against conference-designated opponents than it is currently obligated to play against conference-designated opponents in the regular season of the cancelled Game, where Notre Dame is currently obligated to play 5 football games each regular season against conference designated opponents as a condition of its affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference for football…"

Both of those clauses seem to fall under current circumstances and would seem to be a disastrous situation for a Western Michigan athletic department that already announced a $6 million budget cut in May, along with head coach Tim Lester taking a voluntary 25% cut.
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WMU football unlikely to host Syracuse in 2020 after ACC schedule announcement (mlive.com; Nothaft)

Western Michigan’s marquee nonconference home game for the 2020 college football season looks to be off the table based on a set of schedule requirements announced Wednesday by the Atlantic Coast Conference.

ACC member school Syracuse was set to visit Waldo Stadium in Week 4 of the upcoming campaign, but the league's board of directors voted to proceed with an 11-game season that includes 10 conference games and one nonconference matchup.

The lone nonconference tilt must take place in the home state of each ACC program, effectively canceling Syracuse's Sept. 26 trip to Kalamazoo.

“Today’s decision was made after months of thoughtful planning by numerous individuals throughout the conference,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. “The Board’s decision presents a path, if public health guidance allows, to move forward with competition. Our institutions are committed to taking the necessary measures to facilitate the return in a safe and responsible manner. We recognize that we may need to be nimble and make adjustments in the future. We will be as prepared as possible should that need arise.”

WMU athletic director Kathy Beauregard said in an email that her department has “not been notified by any of our opponents officially we would not be playing our games. Hopefully, we will begin conversations once we hear from them.”

One thing that could help salvage a Syracuse-WMU matchup in 2020 is the fact that this year's game is the first in a home-and-home series that was scheduled to wrap up with the Broncos trip to upstate New York in 2023.
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https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/nc-state/article244597262.html (newsobserver.com; Pope IV)

The ACC announced Wednesday that its football teams will play a conference-only schedule, plus one nonconference game, this season amid mounting concerns over the coronavirus.

The ACC’s announcement follows the lead of other Power 5 conferences, which have also announced conference-only schedules in 2020. A new scheduling format brings some good news ahead of fall camp for N.C. State.

“It’s exciting to know we are a step closer to being able to play,” Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren told the N&O via email on Wednesday. “More than anything I am happy for our players. Knowing that all the hard work they have invested has games on the other side of it helps their mental health. I look forward to competing with the teams we have and eventually knowing the order we play them in.”

N.C. State athletic director Boo Corrigan told the N&O the health and safety of the players, coaches and staff remains a top priority.

“Today’s decision provides a path forward, if safe and responsible circumstances permit, for Fall sport to occur,” Corrigan said on Wednesday afternoon. “There has been a great deal of time spent and conversation to reach this point, and we’ll continue that in the weeks ahead.”

HOW MANY GAMES WILL BE AFFECTED?

N.C. State had four nonconference games on its original schedule. The Wolfpack were scheduled to host Mississippi State, Delaware and Liberty and play at Troy. N.C. State gets one nonconference game and it has to be played in the state of North Carolina.

Todd Wetmore, Liberty associate AD for communications, sent a statement to the N&O Thursday morning saying that the Flames plan on playing all 12 games on its schedule in 2020, including three contests against ACC schools.

“Liberty remains in communication with the three ACC schools that are on our 2020 football schedule (Virginia Tech, Syracuse and N.C. State) with the hope to play these games this season.”
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Good luck, Dino: Quick reaction to 2020 Clemson and ACC football schedule (tigernet.com; Staff)


Earlier in the day the ACC announced the revamped fall sports schedule and that included Clemson’s football schedule. As I followed the paws onto campus Wednesday evening, it felt like football might actually be on the horizon for the first time in a while. In case you missed it, here is how football in the ACC shakes out:
*The season’s first games will take place the week of Sept. 7-12
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Brandon Rink

* In the pandemic, I’ve been in one mode on Clemson’s potential scheduling for fall or spring: Is it football? (Yes.) Cool, I’ll take it. I don’t care if Notre Dame is just in the league as a full member for one year or one hundred years. I don’t care if it’s home-and-away or pods or the same ole divisions -- I just want conferences to hone in on the best ways to protect players, coaches and more in the potential college football games ahead...and then find a way to get us to the games. There are still several important decisions ahead and we have to get through camp practices to these games. There have been positive signs in some American sports leagues and what happens in MLB and NFL will fall closer to what we might see in college football this fall. Here’s hoping we see this schedule come to be.

* Potentially having all Power 5 teams play double-digit Power 5 opponents in a season is a fascinating development for whatever the College Football Playoff ends up being. And ditching divisions is another really fun aspect specifically to the ACC. I love the idea of taking the top-two teams and mixing things up for Clemson to play Virginia Tech and Miami for the first time since 2017 (and a first time hosting the Hurricanes at home since 2010) and an early home revenge redo versus Pittsburgh. If the ACC were to permanently ditch divisions, I would be in favor of keeping NC State as a yearly opponent though and we won’t get that game this year (barring a miracle Wolfpack run to Charlotte).

* On Notre Dame: It’s funny how the league and Notre Dame and the TV partners (ESPN and NBC) found a way for things to work out on revenue. For the Fighting Irish, they know they can make more money being in the ACC football scene full-time. It’s not necessarily about money for them. In the current economic climate though, getting that taste of revenue might just be enough to bring to fruition what so many clamor for going forward.

* Had to do a metrics-related thought: Notre Dame (12) draws the other two highest-rated teams in the league by ESPN’s preseason SP+ with hosting Clemson (3) and heading to North Carolina (17). Despite some preseason hype, their trip to Charlotte is far from guaranteed and North Carolina gets to avoid Clemson in the regular season -- and their next toughest games might just be regular divisional opponents with a Virginia Tech (home) or Miami (road). On the other end of the spectrum, No. 95 Syracuse faces all three of that top trio on the road. Good luck, Dino.

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Pitt hit hard by changes to 2020 ACC football schedule (cardiachill.com; Wilson)


The ACC rolled out its plan for the 2020 football season on Wednesday, and rather than adopting the five-team geographic pods that were floated earlier this month, the conference heads decided on a different schedule model that will see Pitt dealt an unfortunate hand.

Updated 2020 Opponents

vs. Louisville
vs. NC State
vs. Notre Dame
vs. Syracuse
vs. Virginia Tech

at Boston College
at Clemson
at Florida State
at Georgia Tech
at Miami

Non-Conference Home Game#H2P

— Pitt Football (@Pitt_FB) July 29, 2020
Prior to the announcement on Wednesday, it was presumed Pitt would still open the season at home against Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 5 and then head to Huntington, West Virginia, to take on Marshall on Sept. 12. However, with the ACC declaring Sept. 7 the start of its football season, limiting its teams to one non-conference opponent and requiring non-ACC games be played in state, Pitt finds itself without an out-of-conference foe for now.

Richmond, an FCS team that went 5-7 last season, was cut from Pitt’s schedule when the Colonial Athletic Association decided to cancel its football season on July 17. And while the possibility still exists that Pitt and Miami (Ohio) could reschedule, the non-conference slate has gone from a three-game tune-up punctuated by a rivalry game with Notre Dame to a single-game question mark. And of course, Pitt’s game with Notre Dame will now count toward its conference record, as the Fighting Irish will compete in the ACC in 2020.
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Episode 236- Syracuse Football: Off Season News/2020 Syracuse Football Schedule W/ Tylermarona!

How the SEC's scheduling decision affects the ACC, Big 12, College Football Playoff and more (ESPN; Adelson)

Four Power 5 conferences have announced their preferred scheduling models, as the SEC joined the Big Ten and Pac-12 in going with conference-only games. The SEC is now planning on playing a 10-game season starting on Sept. 26. The Big 12 is expected to decide next week. What do all these decisions mean for the college football season? Here are the most pressing questions answered.

What does this mean for ACC-SEC rivalry games?

The SEC's decision to play only conference games caught the ACC by surprise, a day after that league announced it would play 10 league foes plus one nonconference opponent.

Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack, on the ACC subcommittee that looked at scheduling models, said the league decided to play one nonconference game as a nod to the four ACC teams with SEC rivals. "Those games are important to Clemson and Florida State and Louisville and Georgia Tech," he said. "I think in an environment like this where it may not frankly be directly beneficial to Syracuse, but if you can do things as a collective body and group that can benefit schools where it is important, I'm inclined to try to be a good partner and support that."
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Notre Dame, ACC a 2020 Marriage of Convenience (SI; Forde)

The uncatchable bachelor moved in with the faithful, patient suitor who has been waiting for him. It’s the unfulfilled sitcom romance that finally comes together—but it also comes with an expiration date. This is college football love in the time of COVID-19.

Notre Dame and the Atlantic Coast Conference are going to share towels and dishes and even a bank account for one season. (If the season happens. We all get that caveat.) Prior to now, the ACC leaders let Notre Dame store some of its stuff at their house—basketball teams, baseball, volleyball, soccer, etc.—without getting too pushy and demanding a full commitment. Then, when the Fighting Irish wound up down on their scheduling luck, they came knocking.

It’s the romcom of the year. A box-office smash. The stuff of fever dreams for covetous conferences everywhere who have tried to tie down the ultimate football flirt.

Maybe the two decide they can’t live without each other when it’s over. Probably not.

Still, hopeless romantics looking for happily ever after can dream of the two permanently settling down and getting hitched. Those dreams largely rest on ease of scheduling.

Flash back to 2018: As Notre Dame was churning through an undefeated season, the last major impediment was the schedule. The Fighting Irish were playing five games in five weeks in five different locations. It was nuts.

They were hopscotching from a game in San Diego (against Navy) to Chicago (Northwestern) to South Bend (Florida State) to New York (Syracuse) to Los Angeles (USC). It was a less-than-ideal path toward the College Football Playoff. "Who does that?” coach Brian Kelly said before that 2018 season began. “Nobody does that.”

Notre Dame does that. Because it can, but also because it has to.

Turns out, that closing gauntlet was survivable—the Irish finished 12–0 and made the playoff. But the problematic schedule was a natural outgrowth of being a football independent with a nationwide profile and fan base. Notre Dame wanted to be everywhere and appeal to everyone—including recruits—but also had to fit games in where it could without the foundation of a conference schedule to build around.
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The ACC teams with easier and tougher slates in new schedule (247sports.com; Elliott)


LOL. He thinks NC State's new schedule is tougher...

The ACC unveiled a modified slate Wednesday afternoon, adopting a scheduling model of 10 conference games and one non-conference game.

With the new schedule comes the news of Notre Dame as a member of the ACC for this season. Notre Dame was already a contractual partner with the ACC, and with many of Notre Dame’s other games being cancelled with the Pac-12 and Big 10 moving to conference-only schedules, the move made natural sense.

The league also announced that there are no divisions for this year. The top two teams in terms of ACC winning percentage will appear in the ACC Championship Game.

The ACC season will start the week of Sept. 5 and end with the league championship on Dec. 12 or 19.

So let’s take the time to evaluate which teams’ conference schedules became tougher and which got easier? To evaluate, I’ll project a new conference winning percentage and compare it against the existing conference projections I made back in March. Also note that wit either no or limited fans in the stands, I did not place much weight on home or road games.
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TOUGHER: NC STATE
I was previously projecting NC State to go 3-5 in league play and can make good arguments that NC State’s schedule got tougher and easier, but I think this slate got slightly tougher..

The Wolfpack keep games against FSU, Duke, Wake Forest, Syracuse, and North Carolina while Louisville, Clemson, and Boston College come off the schedule. And Georgia Tech, Miami, Pitt, Virginia Tech, and Virginia come on.

While NC State does avoid facing Clemson, it added four games against teams projected in the upper two thirds of the league. And for a team like NC State, games against teams in the upper two thirds of the league mean games in which the Wolfpack is a likely underdog.
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TOUGHER: SYRACUSE
Syracuse kept most of its existing schedule intact with Boston College, Louisville, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, NC State, and Pitt. It does lose Florida State, but adds Duke, Notre Dame, and North Carolina.

Being charitable to the Orange, this still looks like a bit tougher schedule and it is difficult to find a scenario in which the Orange does not lose at least seven games in conference this season.

The games against Boston College, Wake Forest, NC State, and Duke are going to be crucial because Syracuse is unlikely to notch victories against Clemson, Louisville, Pitt, Notre Dame, or North Carolina.
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ACC_schedule_2020_accfootball_0.jpg


ACC Football: What to Know About the Revamped 2020 Schedule (athlonsports.com; Lassan)

College football’s 2020 season is filled with uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the ACC took a step towards a return to the gridiron this fall. On Wednesday, the conference announced a revamped schedule, which includes 10 ACC contests and one non-conference game. Additionally, Notre Dame will play as a member for the 2020 season and is eligible to play in the conference title game. There are no divisions this fall, so all 15 teams will be grouped into one pool with winning percentage counting as the determining factor for the teams in the conference championship game.

Here’s what you need to know about the revamped 2020 ACC schedule:

Notre Dame is a Full ACC Member for 2020

For the first time in its program history, Notre Dame will compete for a conference title. It’s just a one-year marriage, as the Fighting Irish are returning to an Independent slate in 2021. Coach Brian Kelly’s team has won double-digit games in each of the last three years and will be one of the favorites to earn a trip to the conference title. Notre Dame was already slated to play Clemson but adding Florida State and North Carolina adds intrigue to the ACC slate. Regardless of how it turns out in wins and losses, it’s a historic one-year arrangement for both parties.

The Start Date of the Season Has Changed

Originally, the ACC season was slated to kick off on Sept. 2 with NC State visiting Louisville. However, Wednesday’s announcement indicates the new start date is anywhere from Sept. 7-12.

Order and Dates…TBD

Even though we have the opponents each team will play, the actual order of games and dates of those contests aren’t set. They will be released later this summer. In the ACC’s release announcing the revamped schedule, commissioner John Swofford indicated additional flexibility may be needed this season: “We recognize that we may need to be nimble and make adjustments in the future. We will be as prepared as possible should that need arise.”
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247Sports' new ACC predicted order of finish (247sports.com; Marcello)

The long-discussed addition of Notre Dame as an honorary member of the conference became official Wednesday, and with it came a slew of new games as the league adopted a 10-plus-1 scheduling format (10 conference games and one non-conference game). Not only did Notre Dame add four additional games to its schedule already heavy on ACC games, the conference eliminated divisions for one season.

With Notre Dame, a legitimate top-10 contender, in the fold you can throw out all of the preseason projections in the ACC. Notre Dame was already scheduled to host Clemson, but now as a temporary member of the ACC, could the Fighting Irish upset the Tigers and win the conference crown?

At the very least the ACC received a much-needed boost with the addition of Notre Dame as the ACC tries to shake off the label of a weak conference dominated by Clemson over the last half-decade. The road will not be easy for Notre Dame, however, as they added Boston College, Florida State, North Carolina and Pittsburgh to its schedule.

Will the ACC be ruled by Clemson again? Will we see Notre Dame and the Tigers face off twice with a rematch in the ACC Championship?

We asked seven national experts at 247Sports to predict the order-of-finish in the conference, along with their surprise teams. We tabulated their votes and came up with the final predictions. Check out the individual ballots and final poll below.

BRAD CRAWFORD
1. Clemson
2. Notre Dame
3. Virginia Tech
4. Miami
5. North Carolina
6. Pitt
7. Louisville
8. Florida State
9. Wake Forest
10. NC State
11. Virginia
12. Duke
13. Boston College
14. Syracuse
15. Georgia Tech

Which team surprises with the new schedule?
I'll go with defending Coastal champion Virginia, a team I don't expect to finish in the top-half of the league standings this fall but has a better shot now that the Cavaliers get favorable matchups vs. Boston College, Wake Forest and NC State added to their slate.
Which team struggles with the new schedule?
I wouldn't say "struggle" but North Carolina's addition of Syracuse, Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Florida State will be a challenge. That's a possible 2-2 situation for the Tar Heels when a 3-1 over those four contests is likely needed to stay in the ACC Championship race.
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https://www.onefootdown.com/2020/7/...s-strange-tv-swarbrick-team-football-nd-irish (onefootdown.com; Vowles)

The surprising news on Wednesday about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish joining the ACC in football for the 2020 season seemingly came out of nowhere. Sure, it’s news that has been primed for weeks, but the general consensus was that the ACC would wait (along with the SEC and Big 12) for the NCAA Board of Governors to release their info on Tuesday next week. So, yeah, when it was the conference that released the information and not leaked news via the media — it hit different.

Immediately the internet was injected with a brand new round of reactions, takes, and delicious H0T Takes. Some fans (and media members) failed to fully read or fully comprehend what the agreement really is and how it will come about.

So let’s talk about a few of those points and a few other things as well.






NOTRE DAME’S REACTION

It took Notre Dame almost 4 hours to publicly acknowledge the news. In today’s world, that’s absolutely crazy. The ACC released the announcement at 4:28 PM and Notre Dame finally responded at 8:32 PM with a single tweet from the PR account.



pic.twitter.com/cyaldYFHpS
— Notre Dame Football PR Team (@NDFootballPR) July 30, 2020


I think we can safely assume that Notre Dame wasn’t fully aware about the announcement timing, and their lack of engagement also suggests they don’t have the answers yet. This is a monumental thing for Notre Dame, and for college football — and here we are almost 24 hours later and this is still all we have.

Seems strange.

ALL-ACC TEAM

Since Notre Dame is eligible to play in the conference championship game, I think it’s fair to say that the Irish will be eligible for ALL-ACC honors at the end of the season. It’s hard to say how that would all go down, but if the sacred cow of championships and TV money are shared — this should fall right in line.

MORE DOUGH

The initial responses about Notre Dame’s TV money from NBC being a “major concession” put me into rage mode last night. I believe that Jude and I accurately depicted how this really works in the OFD Podcast, and in the end... Notre Dame makes more money. How this was overlooked by some in the media makes me wonder how drunk they really were before dinner on a Wednesday.

THE NAVY PROBLEM

What Notre Dame does — or is able to do — with the Navy Midshipmen on the schedule is perhaps the biggest reason for the delayed response from the Irish. Given the guidelines that the ACC put forward, Navy would have to play Notre Dame inside Notre Dame Stadium. There are no exact dates for the ACC opponents on ND’s schedule now so...
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https://triblive.com/sports/first-c...l-not-as-bad-as-some-conference-fans-believe/ (triblive.com; Benz)

For Friday’s “First Call,” we take a closer look at ACC football’s sudden addition of Notre Dame this year.

And we try to dispel some of the knee-jerk, negative reaction to it.

Although it’s totally understandable. I mean, c’mon. It’s Notre Dame.

Ugh.

On Wednesday, a torrent of anti-Notre Dame sentiment erupted among fans of ACC schools. That’s when it was announced the ACC was going to allow Notre Dame to be a one-year conference member for football because of the nationwide coronavirus-induced scheduling fiasco.

Notre Dame was on the verge of losing at least seven or eight games from its schedule because other conferences — including the ACC — wanted a “conference only” format for 2020 because of the pandemic. Doing so allows for more streamlined decision making in terms of testing, policy, procedures, cancellations and travel.

But, since the Fighting Irish annually play a partial ACC schedule (as an independent) anyway, Brian Kelly’s team was already slated to take on six ACC teams in 2020.

So, the ACC decided to go with a 10-game conference schedule, with each team allowed to schedule one non-conference game. Notre Dame has been adopted as a conference member for this year only. They are eligible for the ACC Championship Game and title.

That additional game and crown could clearly aid the Irish in a quest to make the college football playoff.

Notre Dame’s concession is that its coveted $15 million NBC television contract will be added to the conference media revenue pool and divided equally among all of the ACC member institutions. Plus, five of Notre Dame’s remaining six games have to be against ACC teams.

To me, that’s a good deal for both sides. Many on Twitter disagree.

Power 5 football should look like this moving forward.

BUT… Notre Dame largely getting a free pass without making a long term commitment to the league as a full member. What a joke. Eligibility for the ACC championship game this year is a slap in the face to regular members. https://t.co/EcTkOro1Tb

— Gunnar Esiason (@G17Esiason) July 29, 2020

This is a non-issue in the overall scope of 2020, but it’s garbage that Notre Dame will be ACC Championship eligible.

— elizabeth sanders lafleur (@eslafleur) July 29, 2020
...


https://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2020/07/which-teams-are-not-playing-in-2020.html (RX; HM)

Which Teams Are NOT Playing in 2020?

With 15 teams and 10 games, it means each school will skip playing four schools. Which ACC member teams does each school miss for 2020? Here's the answer, grouped by the pseudo-pods* outlined in "Did the ACC Get Geography Right?" (posted on CardiacHill):

Boston College: Florida State, Miami, NC State, Wake Forest
Syracuse: Florida State, Miami, Virginia, Virginia Tech
Pitt: Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest
Notre Dame: Miami, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech
Louisville: Clemson, Duke, North Carolina, NC State

Virginia: Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse
Virginia Tech: Florida State, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Syracuse
Wake Forest: Boston College, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Pitt
Duke: Clemson, Louisville, Miami, Pitt
North Carolina: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Pitt
NC State: Boston College, Clemson, Louisville, Notre Dame

Clemson: Duke, Louisville, North Carolina, NC State
Georgia Tech: North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Florida St: Boston College, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Miami: Boston College, Duke, Notre Dame, Syracuse
OBSERVATIONS:
  • The two Northern-most teams, Boston College and Syracuse, skip the two Southern-most teams, Florida State and Miami. (Good job, ACC!)
  • Pitt, Syracuse, Florida State and Georgia Tech all play both Clemson and Notre Dame; NC State plays neither. Everyone else plays one of the two.
  • Several match-ups which are normally played annually are skipped, such as
...

https://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2020/07/what-sec-conference-only-means-for-acc.html (RX; HM)

What SEC conference-only means for ACC

The ACC got word from its biggest scheduling partner today, but it wasn't what it wanted to hear...

NEWS | @SEC establishes new football start date of September 26 and Conference-only football competition.https://t.co/UhFFOfQ2lK
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) July 30, 2020
From "2020 SEC Football Schedule: 10 Conference Games Only" on FBSchedules.com:
Each SEC team will now play a 10-game schedule of SEC opponents only. The move eliminates all four non-conference games for each team, which includes the four traditional SEC-ACC rivalry games — Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Kentucky-Louisville, and South Carolina-Clemson.

As for the start date, the conference announced that the 2020 SEC football season will begin on Saturday, Sept. 26. That will be four weeks after some schools start in Week Zero (Aug. 29) and three weeks after Week 1 (Sept. 3-5).
And from ESPN's "How the SEC's scheduling decision affects the ACC, Big 12, College Football Playoff and more", here's what a couple of ACC Athletic Directors had to say:
Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack, on the ACC subcommittee that looked at scheduling models, said the league decided to play one nonconference game as a nod to the four ACC teams with SEC rivals. "Those games are important to Clemson and Florida State and Louisville and Georgia Tech," he said... Wildhack added that the ACC would not change its format because the SEC opted to go conference only...

"Clemson aggressively lobbied the ACC to include an additional non-conference game for the primary purpose of maintaining our long-standing rivalry game with South Carolina," Clemson AD Dan Radakovich said in a statement. "We're disappointed to hear of the scheduling decision announced by the SEC, as we know the importance of The Palmetto Bowl to the State of South Carolina. We will work to fill the opening on our schedule immediately."
...

Other

ICI2XBQNRRCJDGB6BXYJ5NR35A.jpg


https://www.syracuse.com/coronaviru...-say-take-out-only-rule-hurting-business.html (PS; Moriarty)


Food Court tenants at Destiny USA say a state rule that bars customers from using its tables and chairs for dining is putting a serious hurt on their business.

“People are like, ‘Oh, I can’t sit, so I’m gonna cancel my order,‘” said Christa Kemp, manager of the Arby’s in the food court.

Operators of the food court’s eateries said business has been extremely slow since the mall reopened July 10 after a nearly four-month shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. Crowds have not returned to pre-pandemic levels at the mall, but food court tenants said an even bigger problem for them is a state rule that requires mall operators to place food court tables and chairs off limits to diners.

At Destiny, dozens of tables and chairs have been pushed together and surrounded with yellow caution tape. Signs on the tables say: “In accordance with New York State Order: THE FOOD COURT SEATING AREA IS CLOSED. Food orders should be taken “To Go” only.”

...
 
Was afraid of this. Hopefully SUMB will be to play in the stands. And hopefully some fans will be allowed in the stands too.

The band is such an important part of the college football experience. The atmosphere is just not the same without them.
 
Was afraid of this. Hopefully SUMB will be to play in the stands. And hopefully some fans will be allowed in the stands too.

The band is such an important part of the college football experience. The atmosphere is just not the same without them.

They'll just have to use DJ "tweet your beats" instead. :D
 

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