The ACC today, announced the future set up for divisions and scheduling.
As expected Pitt was placed in one of the present divisions and Syracuse was placed in the other. The idea of a North-South divisional set-up was never going to fly. First because putting Miami and FSU in the same division seems silly, but more importantly it would be bad for teams in the north to not have regular trips to Florida for recruiting.
Here’s how the divisions will look:
Coastal
Pitt
Virginia Tech
Duke
Virginia
Georgia Tech
North Carolina
Miami
Atlantic
Syracuse
Boston College
NC State
Wake Forest
Clemson
Florida St.
Maryland
The ACC also announced the schedule structure.
It will be a 9-game football conference schedule. That means Pitt will play its six divisional opponents annually, plus their divisional opponent: Syracuse. The other two conference games will be a rotation of the other six Atlantic teams. That means teams like Maryland and BC will be played once every 3 years.
Again, this should not be unexpected. There is no way in a conference of 14 teams and even to a 9-game schedule that all teams will be played on a regular basis.
The 9-game schedule means that the Backyard Brawl is most likely going to be done. Or at least become much more sporadic. Pitt has its deal in place with ND. They have a short series with PSU on the way — and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that game revived to a more permanent situation in the next 5-10 years. It is entirely possible that the Backyard Brawl might be reduced to an annual basketball game.
Over to the basketball side. The ACC already had said they were going to an 18 game schedule. The set-up when Pitt and Cuse join will be very familiar. Everyone plays once. One protected home-and-home (the rivalry game) and 3 other rotating home-and-homes.
Neither Syracuse or Boston College will be Pitt’s protected home-and-home. Instead, it will be… Maryland.
Now this is interesting, because I think a lot of Pitt fans thought/assumed/hoped that Maryland would be set up as Pitt’s “rival” in the ACC in both sports. Owing to the relative geographic distance (and perhaps a little because of the Steelers-Ravens).
Instead they have only a partial pairing set up. But, the truth is, the pairings do make sense:
Basketball protected pairings
Pitt-Maryland
BC-Syracuse
FSU-Miami
UNC-Duke
Wake Forest-NC St.
VT-UVA
Clemson-GT
More discussion on this to come, I am sure. In the meantime, here is the entire press release:
—————————————-
ACC Announces Future Regular-Season Scheduling Formats
Conference schedules will go to nine games in football and 18 in basketball; League will sponsor 26 sports with new 14-member structure.
Feb. 3, 2012
- ACC Extends Formal Invitations for Membership to Pittsburgh and Syracuse (9/18/11)
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (theACC.com) – Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced today the future scheduling formats as approved by the ACC’s Faculty Athletic Representatives and Athletics Directors.
The announcement was made following the annual ACC Winter Meetings and will go in effect once Pittsburgh and Syracuse become playing members in the conference.
“We have been engaged in discussions on the various options for integrating Pitt and Syracuse since early fall,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “It’s a tremendous tribute to the leadership at our schools that we will be able to seamlessly add Pitt and Syracuse at the appropriate time when they become full playing members.”
A breakdown of the future scheduling models include:
Football:
The Atlantic and Coastal divisions will remain the same with Syracuse joining the Atlantic and Pitt joining the Coastal. The current primary crossover partners will remain consistent with Syracuse and Pitt becoming primary crossover partners with each other.
When Pitt and Syracuse join the ACC, the league will play a nine-game conference schedule. The format will consist of each team playing all six in its division each year, plus its primary crossover partner each year and two rotating opponents from the opposite division. This six-year cycle allows each team to play each divisional opponent and its primary crossover partner six times (three home and three away) while also playing each rotating crossover opponent two times (one home and one away).
Men’s and Women’s Basketball:
As previously announced, the ACC will play an 18-game conference schedule beginning in 2012-13.
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).
The scheduling model will be based on a three-year cycle during which teams will play every league opponent at least once with the primary partners playing home and away annually while the other 12 rotate in groups of four: one year both home and away; one year at home only; and one year away only. Over the course of the three-year cycle primary partners play a total of six times and all other conference opponents play four times.
The format allows each program to see opponents with more regularity and creates an increase in competitive balance throughout the teams. It was determined that all 14 league members will continue to compete in the ACC Men’s and Women’s Tournaments and a decision on the Tournament formats will be announced at a later date.
Olympic Sports:
All team sports will continue to play each conference team at least once during the regular season. Baseball is the only exception as they currently don’t play all conference opponents.
The league will continue to sponsor an ACC Championship event in all sports. The only exception will be volleyball, which will continue to recognize its champion from regular-season play.
The conference will sponsor an ACC Championship in the sport of gymnastics. There are currently three institutions that sponsor gymnastics (Maryland, North Carolina and NC State) and with the addition of Pitt, the ACC will have four programs, the necessary number in the league’s bylaws to host a conference championship. The ACC previously sponsored a conference championship in gymnastics in 1984.
But Pitt’s football rival is..Syracuse? Really? REALLY?! They couldn’t play up the Steelers-Ravens? I mean they could have schedule the Panthers-Terapins the saturday before that game!
And Pitt-Maryland in BBall? I know I don’t speak for everyone, but I see the Blue Devils or the Rams (whatever UNC is) as our BBall rivals as we all know what will be talked about is which of those three teams can dominate, or whether a panther will prowl on Tobacco Road (see? I’m giving them advertising for free!)
Well, I guess familiarity is a good thing at least. I mean our division is made up of what? 3-4 former BE teams? And at least we know Duke’ll be an easy D1, Conference football win.
Oh well, I’m excited. I wish we could leave the Big East now. H2P! Hail to the ACC!
THat’s a way too high opinion of Pitt to presume crashing the UNC-Duke rivalry. Maryland has a very fine b-ball rep. It suffered in the final few years of Gary Williams, but they really care about their B-ball there.
As for Syracuse in football, I think it should have been Maryland just to build some sense of rivalry if they are going to be protected in basketball. The decision, though, is a defensible nod to their long history. Not really a rival, but a long history of playing each other
I guess I saw it more of a Pitt-UNC-Duke rivalry, going back to a couple of years ago when Pitt crashed the polls by taking #1. Plus, Coach K has talked highly of the Panthers (My ACC friends keep telling me he’s a weasel. I have yet to see that.)
I just wish things were different. But wish in one hand and all that.
Because the ACC had to throw BC a bone. Attendance at BC games is horrid right not. Cuse at home every year is a necessity for them.
But Big East Football resulted in the opposite. Pitt is now a minor football name with a foggy, maybe big name past.
Schools which were a joke some years ago benefited the most from Big East Football; Va. Tech., Rutgers, UConn, South Fla., Cinn.
Years ago Pitt wouldn’t even schedule these schools. Plus I just don’t see what most of the above added to Pitt. Academics? Forget about it!
Rutgers is the only one above, I have respect for as an academic institution.
The 2002 raid caused the Big East Football academic reputation to suffer. Not so much by the schools lost, but by the ones added;
Louisville, Cinn, South Fl.
Please, I’m not saying the above instituions are bad. I just feel Pitt is better served associating with the likes of Va., NC, Duke, Ga. Tech., and Wake Forest.
Both Pitt and Syracuse belong in the ACC.
Plus, we’ll probably be playing one of them in the championship game anyhow, right??? ha ha
Love the Pitt-Maryland hoops!!!
Love the fact that VA TECH has beenr reported that if not in their division, they wanted us as their crossover rival. I guess a few beatdowns we put on them wants them to set things right, in their mind. LOL
Cannot wait till the ACC tournament, can you imagine those teams all in one place???
Awesome.
Loved you Big East hoops, sorry the commissioners and powers that be had to piss around all these years with stickin’ to the football. All could have been handled years ago.
You did it, no one else to look at my friends, look in the mirror!!!
Good luck, so long, movin’ forward!!!
But for basketball, its better that we stay in more urban areas where we have connections already. If not NYC/Newark or Philly (which aren’t ACC options) then the DC are is the next best place to be marketting our brand. This will help the transition for recruiting purposes, then we can see what the future brings as we integrate into the conference.
A north south split would have been better with Miami placed in the north since it is a long trip there from anywhere. And would have put a Fl team in each division for recruiting.
The split should have been made at the NC / Va state line. With the crossover opponents all the big rivalries could have been maintained (ie Va/ NC and Fl St / Miami).
This approach was the lazy way out. I was hoping Md would be in our division so we could play them every year, they are are closest conference opponent.
It wasn’t lazy. It was political. Everyone wants to recruit the south. Not just Florida, but Georgia and the Carolinas. That was part of the reason for the set up of the divisions before Pitt and Cuse were added. VT, UVA and MD were firmly against being placed in a North division in what you established as a Big East+ division.
I liked the idea of the North-South divisions for simplicity and logic, but recruiting and internal politics made it a non-starter.
I would have preferred a football pairing with Maryland for recruiting purposes. But of the 4 “northern” schools, only 2 have good recruiting bases – Pitt and Maryland. It makes sense for the conference to split them up instead of pairing them, because it gives Syracuse continued access to WPA.
I don’t think basketball recruiting will be affected by the divisions. But the new ACC as a super conference will be appealing and we can probably gain some of those recruits that would consider UConn or Georgetown or Villanova.
Maryland will also probably be our main wrestling rival. Unfortunately wrestling is not a subject much discussed here but Pitt has been making great strides. Hopefully they will give a good account of themselves against PSU on the 19th of this month.
As for Maryland becoming our rival, I tend to think it’ll be rather one-sided for the time being unless the Terps have some dramatic turn-around, and that this will serve to intensify the animosity that Baltimore and DC have for the city of Pittsburgh, given the Steelers dominance of the Ravens and the Penguins’ domination of the Caps in the playoffs over the last decade and a half or so.
Move the games to Consol Energy Center, schedule them for a Friday or Saturday night in early December when the Penguins are out of town. Make the extra tickets available to the public weeks in advance. They’ll sell out every time. There’s no reason not to do this.
I hope we never play WVU in any sport ever again. I hope their recruiting base shrivels up like a 100 year old man’s penis. Screw ’em.
You guys can drive to Morganhole. I’ll be sitting on South Beach waiting for the Pitt/Miami kickoff.
Side note: Tough road through Miami, Vtech and GAtech each year. Should be fun to watch. Add in ND, Penn St or WVU and the road to a national championship just got tougher. Really tough.
Plus I think Mark Turgeon is capable of rousing a potential sleeping giant in the Terps, and that this rivalry will become quite interesting.
Nothing against the teams we’re leaving, but, when we both leave, the ACC immediately goes from dueling with the BE the past 10 years to see who is the number one conference, to clearly being the number 1 conference.
Don’t forget, WVU is out also. That will leave, UCONN, G-Town, Nova, still, a very good conference but it will not have the cache any longer that is used too.
Hey, I love college hoops, so, I watch everyone, and I’ll still watch the BE, but it won’t be nearly as strong, not even close.
So, I know a few NYC kids will always want to stay home, to play at St.J’s, Rutgers and Seton Hall, but, I would have to think that a lot of the big time players will want to play in the ACC in the big time conference.
With Jamie’s connections to NYC hoops, still playing Syracuse, BC and Maryland in the north, with the excitement and addition of Duke, NC, NC St and the rest of the gang, I don’t see how we lose NYC???
Also talk of ACC eventually being played in MSG, or the new place in Brooklyn where the NETS??? play.
If they are not too mad, we may still have OOC games some years with a Seton Hall or a Rutgers.
Many of you are much better at how recruiting works that way, for the common guy like me, I don’t see it.
If a star player wants to stay home at St.J’s, he’s gonna want to stay home anyway if it’s in his heart. If a NYC kid wants to play in the big time league, and kind of stay as close to home as possible, he’s probably going to look at Pitt, Syracuse and Marylang.
No, not BC, they reek. Anyhow, that’s my take on it, I think our pipeline will continue as long as Jamie knows the guys in NYC and Jersey.
It’s an exciting time.
Also, we all laugh, including myself, but if you read the ACC feed, Pitt having gymnastics will now let them have a championship in that sport for men and wommen. Funny to us, but I bet to the guys and girls on those other gymnastics team, Pitt just made their day. They’ll now get recoginized.
Hey, it’s some good will as we enter.
Really happy with VA TECH almost demanding that if we’re not in their division, they wanted us as their cross over rival. I think they want some payback, one of the few powerhouse teams we ever came close to owning.
Maybe not owning, but we gave our share of beat downs to them.
@JEFF, hey, that’s a great idea. Would that be a sweet game at the Consol. If you could get WVU to go for it. Hell, money talks, neutral site, split the revenues, national tv, good idea.
I believe we will still be playing them in hoops.
Just remember: 13-9. Hail to Pitt!
You are crazy advocating playing any basketball games at the Consol let alone WVU. Winning the basketball game is more important than selling an additional 5,000 seats . WE NEVER SHOULD GIVE UP OUR HOME COURT ADVANTAGE !
If you move the WVU game then it will be followed with moving the Duke and NC games to the Consol. There goes home court !
Once we get that ACC money coming in you can add 2500 seats to the Pete on the west end 200 level.
Academically, the ACC is the top Division I Conference. Pitt belongs and can compete with NC, GA Tech, Duke… both in the classroom and on the field. HTP!
It would be a neutral site, made for tv, marquee game at the Consol, not one of our home games.
If it had to be that, or lose the game all together, then I’d be willing to play there.
You are correct, we don’t want to make a habit out of playing there, and don’t ever want to play ACC games there for a couple extra seats.
Yahoo Sports, ESPN, NBC are all focusing on Pittsburgh (not that I’m complaining) but why the sudden interest/love for the Burgh and not the Cuse? They’re going to the ACC too.
Thanks for reading my comments. At my age I like people agreeing with me. I’m just happy we are going to a group where we belong; plus, finally, some security!
I too will miss the Garden in March.
ACC tie-ins for 2010-2013:
#1 Bowl Championship Series.
#2 The Chick-fil-A Bowl
#3 The Champs Sports Bowl
#4 The Hyundai Sun Bowl receives the ACC Championship Game runner up or the fourth choice of ACC teams.
#5 The Belk Bowl
#6 The Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl
#7 The Advocare 100 Independence Bowl
#8 The Military Bowl
#9 The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (this is only if there are nine ACC bowl eligble teams)
vs the Big East 2010-13:
#1 Bowl Championship Series
#2 The Champs Sports Bowl
#3 The Belk Bowl
#4 The New Era Pinstripe Bowl
#5 BBVA Compass Bowl / AutoZone Liberty Bowl (this one’s an either or)
#6 The Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl receives the sixth Big East selection.
We would still have to have a winning record of course but I think it is manageable in the “Coastal” ACC!
6-9 is pretty much the Bigeast 3-6.
Comment by CJK 02.03.12 @ 4:03 pm
After being a flop in Jacksonville, Fl. the ACC championship was moved to Charlotte for 2011.
And it was a huge success, the game was a sellout and fans had a lot of fun staying in downtown Charlotte hotels, so you only had to walk to Bank Of America stadium. And take in all the downtown restaurants and bars downtown Charlotte has to offer. A very good move indeed by the ACC.
Football wise we get trips to lovely Chapel Hill, one of America’s nicest campus’s, trips to Miami and all that great city has to offer, trips to fan crazy Blacksburg to renew our rivalry with powerhouse Va Tech, trips to another storied campus in Charlottesville and trips to another city with a lot to offer, Atlanta. We only have one clunker, Duke….hey but we need a breather game right!
Basketball wise, while I would have rathered play Cuse twice, Maryland will due, since that area is much more fertile for recruiting(see James Robinson), plus it’s easier to get to than Cuse and more PITT alum live in MD.
Let’s just hope we can start playing in 2012, but hey if we don’t that’s ok. It will give the football team another year to get better and in 2013 we will be Tinoless. And that will be a very good indeed.
H T P !
V E V !
Most say it could never happen, however, in the past two days…..
1. WVU, as you said, cancelled it’s game with Florida State, and paid them the $500,000 cancellation fee.
2. Big 12 released it’s schedules, and WVU is on every one of them. Won’t make it public yet, only to the networks, apparently if they make it public, BE could use it against them in court.
3. Boise St is rumored to be being pressured to join the BE in 2012, even though their fee for exiting WAC would go from 2.5 mil to 5 mil.
4. A small little nuggest, on KDKA, after giving the new ACC alignments, the sports anchor (forgot who it was, Jory Rand??), showed a picture of Smug Smile Steve, and said that he was asked about when Pitt is going, and they asked if WVU does go ahead and leave, would Pitt have to think about what they are doing.
***Suprisingly, to me anyhow, ol’ Steve was quoted as saying that if WVU leaves, Pitt and Syracuse will definitely have to re look at things***
Instead of the usual bs talk about “that’s a long way off”, or “I can’t comment, haven’t thought about it”, he actually said that if that happens, we’re gonna have to see about things.
Probably not, but, I’m just sayin’!!!!!
Maybe someone else can tell me this. Conventional wisdom, had WVU never leaving this year.
Ok, using that logic, I see that Pitt and Syracuse could not leave either.
I mentioned this before, as a fantasy question, and it got laughed off a bit a month or two ago.
If WVU does leave and play in the Big 12 next year, what on earth would be keeping Pitt and Syracuse staying in the BE next year???
Please…for times sake, I’m not looking for “WVU is not leaving”.
I’m asking, if WVU does somehow pull this off, why would we stay for another year or two if they got to leave????
***Boise prez, says to late to go to BE 2012***
***WVU blogs, on fire for B12 schedule and wanting to see who they’re playing. Acting as it’s a done deal*** (which means nothing, I’m just stating that there isn’t one WVU person that thinks they are playing in the BE this year.)
Like when we dug a cleat into Michael Vick’s leg, but I digress.
I’m really happy to see Miami, Cuse, and Va Tech as our regular football foes, it’s like the old football Big East, which I felt was a solid football conference. Now, if we can Penn State back on the schedule, it’s like we’ll have boomeranged back around to a schedule similar to the Harris era.
Overall I am far happier with this…get me as far away from the once relevant, now forgotten Boston College.
Hopefully, everything gets worked out.
