The ACC may expand basketball schedule: Lack of NCAA berth may force league to push docket to 18 games

April 30, 2008 - Ken Tysiac - McClatchy Newspapers

The State - Columbia, SC

httP://www.thestate.com/tigers/story/390668.html

Perhpas if the ACC goes to 18 games, they could use this alignment:

North - Boston College, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech
Central - North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest
South - Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech, Clemson

Everyone plays the teams in their own division twice for 6 games. Teams would play teams in the other divisions either once or twice for 12 games-those would be split evenly between the two divisions.

As an example of if you wanted to do fixed rivalries for the four extra games, Miami could always play Boston College, Virginia Tech, Duke, and Wake Forest twice. Alternatively, the four extra games could be rotated out every two years, so that over four years schools in different divisions would play each other six times-three at home and three away.

Actually, that works out fairly well for a 12-team conference.

At one time in the 1990s, C-USA had 3 basketball divisions called Red, White and Blue.
I think there were 12 teams total, so each division was 4 teams. I'm sure that you played H & A vs. your division, not sure how many they played vs. the other teams...
(maybe it was 3+3, then the other 8 teams once (4H, 4A) for a total of 14 games).

The ACC wouldn't go to divisions for standings and it's unlikely they'd standardize the schedule either. There's too many rivalries to protect. When/if the ACC goes to 18 games, you'll likely see an adaption of what they have now: permanent home-and-homes and rotating partners ranked by program strength. http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/acc/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/model-three-years.pdf

I predict each team will gain an extra home-and-home rival so the 18 games will feature 3 permanent home-and-homes, 4 roving home-and-homes, and 4 other conference games. Every other year, you'd have 2 chances at a team.

Perhaps the extra rivals will be:
BC - UMD (Northern pair, Gary Williams connection)
Clemson - UVA (Clemson - UNC or Wake would also work)
Duke - NC State (The triangle series is complete)
FSU - GATech (Recruiting and football rivals)
Miami - VATech (Old Big East teams get stuck together)
UNC - Wake (keeps NC teams happy that nearly all their state rivalries were kept in tact)