ACC re-alignment and you
Looks like someone got my letter. Over the weekend Commish Swofford made the first big move in the conference re-alignment wars. The ACC added Syracuse and Pitt.
As an ACC fan, I’m not really that happy with expansion in general and I’m definitely not happy with having Pitt and Syracuse in the conference (Miami and BC are bad enough, did we really need more Big East dead weight?), but I think Swoff did the best he could with what was available.
Now please stop.
14 teams is enough. 16 teams will further skew things and here’s why:
The ACC already claimed the two biggest prizes in the Big East. Send hate mail here UConn, South Florida, and West Va fans. Rutgers fans you can too but I really don’t think you exist.
7 team divisions allows for a divisional round robin with two cross-division games in an 8 game scenario. 8 team divisions just makes things messy and the two divisions almost operate like small conferences.
If the league stops now, things can be split geographically for divisions that make sense rather than the sufficiently vague Atlantic and Coastal variations. Here is how I would split things:
North:
- BC
- Syracuse
- Pitt
- Maryland
- VT
- UVA
- Duke
South:
- UNC
- NC State
- Wake
- Clemson
- GT
- Florida State
- Miami
Gasp! Duke and UNC in separate divisions? They can deal with it the same way Michigan and Ohio State will deal with it. Besides it will fit well for basketball too. ESPN would love to see the ACC tournament end with a classic Duke - Carolina match-up in Charlotte. (Screw you, Jim Boeheim, you join the ACC, you deal with the ACC’s traditions.)
Is the South division a little football heavy? Perhaps it looks that way now, but remember, things change. Miami looked like a heavy weight when they joined the ACC but it turns out Virginia Tech was longer term power. Who’s to say Pitt wouldn’t emerge or Maryland wouldn’t step up?
Most importantly, let’s try to preserve the little bit of tradition the ACC has left. The basketball tournament and football title game stay in Charlotte every year until the end of time. North Carolina is the geographic center of the league, most of the fans live within driving distance of Charlotte, and it is a neutral site with pro facilities. End of story.
