In the past week, Syracuse and Pitt both officially got their release from the Big East, effective 2013. That means that the ACC will debut a 14 team league, and 9 game conference schedule next season.
And that will lead to some scheduling shake ups across the conference. What teams might get bounced from the ACC schedule?
In the first of a two part post, we look at how the Coastal division will have to adjust for the addition of Pitt.
Georgia Tech and North Carolina actually have the easiest schedule adjustments. Neither team has more than 3 non-conference games scheduled for 2013 and beyond.
Duke is in the same position for 2013 and 2014, but has 4 teams scheduled for 2015. Since NC Central is the lowest on the totem pole and is not part of a home-and-home series, they appear to the be the victim of schedule expansion.
Virginia Tech has unique position of already having Pitt on the 2013 schedule. Originally the second part of a home-and-home series in 2012-13, the 2013 edition will simply become the first of the renewed conference matchups (the first since 2003 - a game I would prefer to forget).
For 2014 and 2015, though, VT will have to dump a team from each season. Tech has already made its preference for non-conference opponents known: 1 AQ school, 1 non-AQ school, and 1 FCS team.
VT has a home-and-home scheduled with Ohio State for 2014-2015, and I don't see them wanting to drop that. Meanwhile, the never ending agreement with East Carolina picks back up in 2014 after a 2 year hiatus. That would be the non-AQ. Since two years of that deal have already had to be rescheduled to accomodate the Alabama game in 2013, I doubt either school would be interested in another rescheduling. The FCS is represented on the Hokies' schedule by William and Mary in 2014, and Furman in 2015. So, it looks like the MAC loses out, in the form of Western Michigan in 2014, and Akron in 2015.
Further northeast in the commonwealth, UVA has to look at the 2013 and 2014 schedules. They only have 10 games scheduled for 2015, so they have extra wiggle room then. In 2013, UVA's biggest non-conference game is Penn State, followed by a home-and-home with UCLA the following two years. They also have a home-and-home with up and coming Texas-San Antonio in 2013-14. Since UTSA is rapidly ascending into the FBS ranks, it might be tough to cancel that series, although that could be an attractive option because it would balance out the home-and-home against Pitt. VMI is the FCS opponent in 2013, so that seems safe. It looks like Ball State will lose out in 2013.
Richmond is once again the FCS opponent in 2014, so at first glance, they seem safe. However, Richmond has made it known that they are willing to pull back from scheduling an FBS team, which usually cripples their season record. This could be the chance for Richmond to get out of the deal, leaving Kent State on the 2014 schedule.
That makes the MAC 0 for 4 in scheduling games against Virginia schools.
Miami makes things a little more interesting. In fact, their future non-conference schedule looks like a mess. They have three in-state schools scheduled for 2013 (Florida, FAU, USF), plus a TBA at Yankee Stadium. I don't see Miami (or the ACC for that matter) giving up a high profile neutral site game. USF is trying to become Miami's Thanksgiving weekend rival, so they're probably going to stay around.
The Florida game appears to be the second half of a home-and-home started in 2008, and could potentially be the last time the two teams meet in the regular season. Florida isn't interested in scheduling any more non-conference games that require a home-and-home, since they feel they need to have 7 home games to make money. (Although they could play Miami and FSU every year, and alternate home and away between the two, which would guarantee a minimum of 5 home games a year.)
FAU is an interesting schedule partner, in that Miami scheduled a 3 game series with them after the announcement that the ACC would go to a 9 game conference schedule. All three years that FAU is on the schedule, Miami has too many non-conference games. I see this deal just getting cancelled.
Next: How Syracuse is tearing up the Atlantic schedules.
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