ACC Votes to Keep Current Football Schedule With Eight Conference Games

By: Ricky LaBlue |

The ACC voted on Wednesday to stick with the current football schedule format, thanks to a last-minute “go ahead” from ESPN.

As part of the creation of the ACC Network, the athletic directors were forced to consider two different scheduling options that would give ESPN more high-value content. The first option would have teams playing eight-game conference schedules with two games vs. Power 5 teams (8+2). The other option was to have teams play nine-game conference schedules, with one game vs. a Power 5 school (9+1).

Due to various reasons, the athletic directors couldn’t agree on either one of the options. Schools like Florida State and Clemson opposed the 9+1 model due to contracted obligations with rival non-conference schools. David Teel of the Daily Press reported that as of Monday, support for the 9+1 model had been building. However, with the chance of deadlock, ESPN told ACC Commissioner John Swofford that the network would settle for the original scheduling model, despite preferring the two alternatives the ACC was originally considering.

The Virginia Tech Athletic Department declined to comment on the vote.

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  1. It was one thing when UVA’s cross-over opponent was UMD, quite another that it’s now Louisville.

    On the one hand most of the annual cross-over opponents make sense, like FSU/Miami, GT/Clemson, UNC/NCSU, WF/Duke and Pitt/Syracuse but VT/BC and UVA/Louisville don’t. Maybe the divisions should be re-shuffled and the annual cross-over opponents dumped.

    Initially, FSU and Miami were placed indifferent divisions w/the expectations of both rising to the top and playing in the championship game. But then as cross-over opponents, they’d be playing each other twice every year.

    With the emergence of Clemson and Louisville to threaten FSU’s dominance in the same division and the failure of Miami to ever even win the Coastal, re-shuffling makes more sense. Put Clemson, GT, FSU, Miami because of the natural rivalries w/Syracuse, Pitt and BC and Tech, Louisville, UVA and the four Carolina schools, UNC, Duke, NCSU and WF. That’s 6 division games and rotating cross-divisional opponents every year. If it’s decided to play 9 – conference games, then each team plays a home/home series w/3-cross-divisional opponents every 2 years.

  2. UVA, Miami, GT, UNC, Duke, Pitt, and BC is a decent conference and sometimes ND, blue moons for FSU,Clem,WF,SU,UL, Ncst. I think we will be getting back to the championship game more. So I am ok with it for now we are in the easy division and BC is not that scary for the atlantic. our future out of conference foes are decent also. The bowl streak should continue, so more quality opponents there. I agree the students may never play WF SU LU or NCS or FSU in their 4 or 5 years is a draw back. Go Hokies

  3. Since they are keeping the 8 game conference schedule do away with the cross over rival game. That would allow for a faster cycling through of the teams in the other side of the conference.

    2. Some crossover rivalries should stay (Miami-FSU, Clemson-GT), but please, for the love of God I want this VT-BC crossover game to END!

    4. I can’t believe they didn’t (at a minimum) do away with the x-over rival. Should be 9 conf games with no x-overs. 🙁

  4. I am actually glad nothing changed just to stick it to espn. If they want more content then get the ACC channel done quicker and pay more $$ and promote the conference like you do the $ec

  5. This goes to show that the only opinions that matter for football are Clemson’s, FSU’s, and if Louisville keeps it up theirs. Even though GT has an annual SEC rivalry, if it was only them we would already be at 9 games.

  6. That’s a bummer and feel it once again demonstrates lack of leadership by ACC ADs. If they won’t go to 9+1 time to go to the NCAA and add one more game to football season and schedule so you can easily get to 9 and have your OOC opponents too. And have the coveted “extra” home game ADs need to pay the bills and keep up with the jones’. What happens when 4 16 team conferences exist…still play 8? C’mon, man!

    1. That won’t happen with the NCAA because of the pressure already building to further expand the playoffs, which would increase the number of weeks of football played. Another week of regular season would further exacerbate that issue, or take away a bye week.

    1. Essentially, yeah, I’d say so. ESPN owes the ACC a network. They tried to negotiate 8+2 or 9+1 as part of the deal. The ACC said “sure, we’ll CONSIDER it”.

      And they did, and they said no, and ESPN (to save face) said “I guess we’re ok with that”.

  8. This is very disappointing. Without changes to the schedule this makes a 14 team conference essentially two distinct conferences. If we have recruiting classes that could potentially never play FSU or UL, then they are in essence in another conference.

    1. Here’s to hoping the ACC revisits the method in which conference games are assigned. I don’t mind divisions necessarily, but the cross-conference rivals have made it hard to establish any rivalry with Coastal vs. Atlantic teams, other than the pre-ordained ones.

  9. This is very disheartening news. From a conference championship standpoint, it makes no sense to stick to 8 games in a 14 team conference. Playing teams like FSU and Clemson once in.a blue moon makes it seem like they are in a different conference. I see this as nothing more than AD’s enabling coaches who want to protect their jobs by playing as many OOC cupcakes as they can.

    1. We are in a conference which includes UVA, Miami, GT, UNC, Duke, Pitt, and BC. Everyone else in the ACC could be just as easily in the SEC or B12, or B10.

      It’s really sad that we play ND more often than F$U or Clemson.

  10. VT needs to develop a series with a power 5 school like Penn State or other relatively close school (so fans can travel) and drop one of the non-power 5 schools like ECU or UVA.

        1. Wrong cupcakes, the 757 is a recruiting hotbed and has lots of alumni that support the program.

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