As a geography nut and long-time sweater of all stuff that is small, I still am annoyed by the non-north-and-south divisional line-up of the ACC. But I wouldn't mention it without what I believe to be a better idea--here goes:

Instead of two divisions of six, three divisions of four. This keeps Tobacco Road in the same division.

North Division Boston College Maryland Virginia Virginia Tech

Central Division Duke North Carolina North Carolina State Wake Forest

South Division Clemson Florida State Georgia Tech Miami

The top two division winners play for the ACC title. In the case of a tie between the 2nd and 3rd best division winner, any number of sufficient tie-breakers could take place (head-to-head, division head-to-head, record vs. opposing division, etc).

I think even the SEC could benefit from such an alignment. Its current alignment has lost the rivalries between Bama/VU and AU/UF. They could easily be recovered in such an alignment, without sacrificing anymore traditional rivalries.

ACC, go to three!

LSUtootnanny, interesting alignment scenerio for the ACC or SEC. The BE may use the same type of four divisions for basketball and have four divisions.

When you break the three ACC divisions apart, Boston College really looks odd which leads into why the ACC expanded for other reasons and not geography.

The ACC thought they could claim the entire eastern seaboard from Boston to Miami by taking BC and Syracuse in the first expansion plans.

Unlike the SEC, where football and basketball are fairly balanced in both the east and the west, the ACC will probably have to experiment for a while similar to how the BE has aligned and changed over the years. One year there are divisions the next is one big group.

The ACC really shows its weakness in geography alignmnent when the two top teams located in Florida have to be in seperate divisions for football.

The SEC has the better balance options in geography and keeps Auburn/Alabama, Tenn/Van, and Miss/Miss State in the same divisions for all sports. The ACC has to have a mis match of geographical teams to ensure a balance in strenght for both major revenue sports of fb and bb.

The ACC may not want to break into three divisions as this would reflect on how the conference made several blunders on its way to 12.

Once the Syracuse issue was not going to happen, the ACC probably could have accomplished the same thing in revenue by taking a southern school such as Tulane and made geograpy a little less obvouis.

I know it already a done deal, however, BC just makes no sense in the ACC period. This is the major reason you are having issues with alignment in geography for the ACC.

Maybe the answer is to raid the BE even more. Face it: Rutgers and Temple (though they're on their way out already) will never make it big. UConn is a newbie and not deserving of the highest level of consideration, and there's Cincy and Louisville, the runts of the conference. That leaves West Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse.

If the ACC snagged them to expand to 15, and if they then used my brilliant way of divisional line-ups...well then it's really confusing again. Well, screw my line-up. If you went by sheer N-S geography:

North Division[list][*]Boston College[/*:m] Maryland[*]Pittsburgh[/*:m] Syracuse[*]West Virginia[/list:u:[/*:m]]

Central Division[list][*]Duke[/*:m] North Carolina State[*]Virginia[/*:m] Virginia Tech[*]Wake Forest[/list:u:[/*:m]]

South Division[list][*]Clemson[/*:m] Florida State[*]Georgia Tech[/*:m] Miami[*]North Carolina[/list:u:[/*:m]]

As discussed by ATL press during preseason metings a week or so ago, the concept of divisional alignment flows thusly,

- Current line-up as proposed is for football only and to be tried for two years and then will be revisited.

- N/S alignment is popular among coaches but will need more zing from the northern schools to affirm appeal with ABC.

- If N/S does happen, NC State and Wake will likely be placed in the northern lot, assuming the Wolfpack will retain more football appeal over UNC. This will require an annual cross-divisional rivalry with Clemson, thus making the same true for everyone else.

- If N/S is a no go the current model may be tweaked for one reason: Placing more of the big city (read: easy airport access) school within the same division for Miami and BC. Likely Maryland, GT and two Raleigh schools.


ACC fans have pushed for this at public meetings, interviews, etc. I personally feel it would help the northern schools immensely, and perhaps give them something to rise to much like Arkansas and Ole Miss have upgraded the depth of the SEC west. Here's to hoping the conferences leaders and TV wonks will see the light.