ACC Schedule Changes: Atlantic Division

Now we take a look at how the Atlantic Division might have to adjust to adding Syracuse to the schedule.


We lead off with Clemson, which does not require a lot of speculation, since they have already cancelled games against Oklahoma State and Ole Miss.  In fact, that link really says it all, including the speculation for 2013 and 2014.

Boston College only has one upcoming season with four non-conference games.  I predict in 2014 that they will drop Rhode Island off of the schedule.

Florida State, NC State, and Maryland are already set with only 3 games or less set for their non-conference slate in the next few years.

Wake Forest only has to worry about 2015.  They have away games at Notre Dame and Army that are continuations of other series.  They are also set to begin a series against Indiana, which I believe is going to be dropped.  They also have their annual matchup against Vandy.

The downside to the 9 game conference schedule is that it will greatly decrease the chance of quality non-conference games in the ACC.  All of the major conferences are going to want home-and-home series, unless it's a one off neutral site game.  Most of these schools also claim they need 7 home games to properly fund the program.

With 9 games in the conference schedule, teams will alternate between 4 or 5 home games each year.  On top of that, you have about half of the conference with primary rivals in other conferences which require a home-and-home matchup.  Hopefully it can work out on both sides of the deal that the home game for that will fall in the year that there are only 4 home conference games.

Perhaps, though, that will give the more northern teams of the ACC an advantage in out of conference scheduling.  Since many of the southern teams have rivals in the SEC, they will have a harder time maintaining the balance between 7 home games and big non-conference games.  The other possibility is that we start seeing those rivalries start to disappear.