How to Fix the ACC Schedule

The ACC schedule is a mess.  With the league at 14 teams, and schools only playing 8 conference games a year, the teams in the other division feel like they are outside of the conference.  For example, BC will play Virginia next season.  This will be the first time the Eagles have played UVA since 2010, and only the 4^th time overall since BC joined the ACC in 2005.  BC and UVA have been in the same league for 12 seasons, and BC has only made the trip to Charlottesville twice.  While BC and UVA may not be traditional opponents, they still are in the same conference.  Elsewhere in the ACC, Wake Forest and UNC have played 106 times, including every year from 1944 to 2004.  However, they got so fed up with the new ACC scheduling format that they have schedule each other for a non-conference game in 2019.  

The major problem with the scheduling is the 2 division format.  With the NCAA slowly getting rid of restrictions on conference championship games, divisions may not be required in the near-future.  If this becomes the case, the ACC should follow the scheduling model they have in basketball.  In basketball, every team plays each school at least once, and plays their 2 “rival” schools twice a season. Obviously the football schedule is much shorter.  With the ACC currently playing 8 games, teams should pay 3 permanent “rival” opponents, with remaining 10 team rotating.  This will allow traditional games to continue to be played yearly.  The remaining teams will play each 2 times every 4 years.  Each player that stays all 4 years will play at every other school in the conference.  The league will become one again in football, instead of feeling like 2 separate conferences.  See the below format for the yearly rivalry games.

In this format, every rivalry game protected in basketball that does not involve Notre Dame is protected except for 2, Miami-Virginia Tech (34 all time meetings) and Lousiville-Pittsburgh (17 all time meetings).  While certain games are not played every year still,, it allows every athlete to play each school at least once.  Gone will be the days that teams are obligated by the ACC to play Notre Dame more often than their long-time conference rivals. 

This format also allows the ACC to maintain an 8 game schedule.  The 8 game schedule is more important to the ACC than it is other conferences due to the large amount of non-conference rivalries, and the contract with Notre Dame.  The above scheduling format keeps the schools who want a 9 game schedule and those who want to stay with the 8 game schedule both happy.