Think you could swap and have Syracuse vs Rutgers (NYC bragging rights) and Pitt vs Maryland, since there already exists such strong sentiment due to Steelers vs Ravens...not to mention Pitt to Maryland is a close drive too.

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Well, my theory was based around Pittsburg and Syracuse being Rivals, but you could easily have Syracuse and Rutgers be rivals as well. That would put Rutgers into "New England" and Pittsburgh into "Atlantic" (named after the mid-Atlantic region).

Really, we'd be looking at scheduling doing one of the following for football:
1. 7 divisional teams, 1 team from each of the other two pods (probably schedule it so that each rivalry meets every other rivalry).
2. 3 pod teams, 2 teams from each of the other 3 pods - Schedule it to where each team plays one team in every rivalry.

Basketball, we'd be looking at the following schedule:
2 games against the 3 pod mates (puts UCONN vs. Syracuse, UCONN vs. Pittsburgh, and Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh 2 each year), and 1 game against each of the other 12 teams - 18 games.

Both of these scheduling matricies I came up with on the PAC-16 proposals, but it can easily be adapted for ACC purposes...

The NCAA division rules say the divisions must play a round robin (obviously 13 teams is exempt). So to do 4x4 pod scheduling, you have to change your divisions every year based on the schedule.

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There's already speculation that the SEC will ultimately ask for a rule change, probably stating that teams with 16+ teams can go into 4 divisions.

But anyways, there are two potential schedules coming out.

1. A 2-divisional schedule (7-2). 7 games within the division, and 2 games within the other division (1 in each pod). Right now I think that this is more likely.
2. A 4-pod schedule (predicated by a rule change). 3 games within the pod, and 2 games within each of the other 2 pods. This would require a rule change, and somehow dealing with the CCG.

Posting this in each of the conference threads:

About to go on vacation, so I likely won't be writing any longer articles for a week of so. So here's some long winded drivel covering each of the FBS football conferences and what to expect next in Conference Realignment:

http://collegesportsinfo.com/2012/02/17 ... s-up-next/

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Hey guys, I'm new to this thread. First off, I'd like to say I've been reading you guys for years and really find your opinions insightful. As a soon to be graduate of Rutgers, I've been a fan of this site since I started going to college.

I'm interested to hear ya'lls opinion on my take for ACC expansion:

Since, let's be honest, the ACC is the weakest of the "big 5" conferences in football anyway, but they do, however, have Arguably the best and most prestigious basketball conference, so why not go for utter domination of east coast basketball.

My idea is for the ACC to add 4 non-football schools to get to a 14/18 split: Notre Dame, Villanova, Georgetown, and St. Johns.
1- This would give the ACC the either new or further penetration into the NYC, Philly, and DC markets, as well as the national (and especially in the northeast) presence of ND.
2- Access to these markets, coupled with the markets already owned by the ACC, would make them THE premier eastern conference year-round.
3- Old rivalries such as Syracuse-G'Town would be preserved, and new marquee ratings games between the likes of Duke and ND and UNC-Nova would be created.
4- St Johns would give you Madison Square Garden for the ACC basketball tournament, which would just be awesome.

Now I know what you're thinking, this does NOTHING FOR FOOTBALL in a conference that already kinda sucks at football.
Here's the most important part for football:
THIS CREATES AN ALLIANCE WITH NOTRE DAME, aligning the ACC to be ND's conference of choice if it ever had to pick a conference. (Nova could eventually upgrade to join with ND to get the conference to 16 football schools).
And with the current impending BCS changes, ND may be forced to pick a conference at some point.

I don't know how/if you'd align the conference into divisions for basketball, or, for fun, what 16-team ACC football divisions with ND and Nova would look like, but I'm interested in hearing ideas.

I think this would benefit the ACC as a whole WAY MORE than adding Rutgers and UCONN. Although I am a soon-to-be Rutgers grad, I honestly don't see any real value for the ACC in the school. Living close to NYC, I can tell you that Rutgers is NOT the NYC team, Notre Dame is the NYC team (or Penn St pre-scandal). In my opinion, if you can get ND, and I think you could if you they pull this kind of steal from the Big East, you get NYC with it.

*For what it's worth, all four of these programs are lacrosse schools, which would also cement the ACC as the top lacrosse conference. I realize in the grand scheme of things this has little to no merit, but may be at least a little appealing to the schools involved.

Let me know what you guys think!

So you are suggesting ACC become a "hybrid" like BE is now.

Not sure the ACC has any interest in that.

Football drove the ACC to 12, but when hey had to split into divisions, a N-S break would have cut right through Tobacco Road" the 4 NC schools.
So they decided to go to the zipper concept for FB divisions and at the time, this seemed smart as it put Miami and FSU (the FB powerhouses) in opposite FB divisions.
In a twist of fate (and perhaps due to Bowden's advancing age) both of these FB powers went somewhat downhill for a few years,
and the school the ACC didn't originally want (VT) was actually the most consistently successful program.

There seems to be some nice advantages to going to 16, without going hybrid, if you added the right 2 schools up North.
For BB (but they also play FB), how can you go wrong with the reigning National Champions, for crying out loud ??? UConn would accept ACC invitation in a heartbeat.
OK, Calhoun will retire at some point, but they have also been THE dominant women's BB school under Gino Auremia.
Then you could fill in the eastern seaboard with a flagship school (Rutgers), although Rutgers FB might trail off since Schiavo left.
As you say, Rutgers may be of medium-attractiveness, certainly nowhere near having the cache and fan base of Notre Dame.
Notre Dame BB is quite good, and should be for the long haul. But Notre Dame FB is the prize, and the ACC doesn't want to go hybrid, or they probably would've already
invited Notrea Dame (not contingent on Notre Dame FB). With the way the BCS shakes out, and Big East membership gets weirder every day,
Notre Dame could possibly be ready to consider a move (INCLUDING FB).

Coach K. even suggested 2 more schools to ACC North, and undoing the zipper. By adding 2 to the North, a N-S separation no longer cuts through NC:
North:
BC, UConn*, Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers* or Notre Dame*, Maryland, Virginia, VT
South:
NC, NCSt., Duke, Wake, Clemson, GTech, FSU, Miami

Long term, I think this is where the ACC is headed.
I happen to think Pitt and Syracuse will negotiate to leave the BE in 2013, since the BE can tolerate their departure, since that is when UCF, Houston, SMU arrive.
ACC would extend an invitation to UConn and Notre Dame TODAY, if Notre Dame would bring their FB program with them.

The ACC has no interest in a hybrid. I believe the ACC could have Notre Dame now if it wasn't for football.

I have no doubt that the ACC will expand to 16 but I don't think it will be until after Notre Dame's TV contract ends with NBC. Notre Dame will join a conference when they can make significantly more money in a conference than by themselves as an independent. I believe that Notre Dame will have to join a conference if they ever want to make the new PLUS 1 playoffs. Unless Notre Dame waters down their current schedule, I don't see Notre Dame finishing ranked above the top 4 conference champions regardless of which conference those champions come from.

As far as playing in NYC, I don't thimk they need St. John's to do it. Don't you think Syracuse, UConn and Notre Dame would be enough. If not Notre Dame then Rutgers.

Couldn't agree more.

The next window for chasing Notre Dame starts about 1-1/2 years before their current TV deal expires.

One of Freaked's articles had the Notre Dame AD (Jack Swarbick)'s name mentioned as a possible candidate to replace interim Big XII Commissioner Chuck Neinas.
I really don't see Notre Dame in the Big XII, so I'm not sure what, if anything, to read into that.
Is there a reason Jack would be contemplating a new job ?

Concur, the ACC is not going hybrid to accommodate Notre Dame bb. Schools such as FSU, Clemson, GT, etc. would not put up with that. And for those ACC members that were former BE members, the message now is "been there, done that, and no way". Those schools left the BE for enhanced all-sports security and more stable collective contracting. Why would they want to reverse themselves?

When the system (BCS, conferences, media, networks, and individual schools) continues to offer enabling accommodations to Notre Dame, the incentive for the Irish to not join a conference per fb, remains sustained.

So Notre Dame isn't being told / forced what to do by anyone, but their continued insistence on football independence may push them toward irrelevance.

If the BCS is transformed into a 4-team playoff consisting of 4 conference champions (or perhaps an independent team ranked in the top 4), the writing on the wall is
that most years, the 4 teams will be 4 of: FB champions of PAC / Big XII / B1G / SEC / ACC.
Does Notre Dame really want to be on the outside looking in ?

Mike Tranghese opined a few months ago....
"The one conference that has remained quiet during this realignment frenzy in 2011 is the Big Ten. At the end of the day, Notre Dame could just be sitting there,
and the Big Ten could swoop in and they'd be the big winners in all of this..."
So apparently Tranghese (who certainly has contacts at Notre Dame) may sense that they feel some pressure to ultimately join a "power conference" for all sports.

Joining the Big Ten makes too much sense for Notre Dame to join any other conference. With traditional rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue already in place, plus marquee conference partners in Ohio State, Penn St, Wisconsin, and Nebraska, it just seems to be the best for ND to join at some point soon. They could easily schedule out of conference games with USC and Navy to maintain those traditional rivalries.

According to wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame ... _rivalries

ND has 6 rivals in the Big Ten (Mich, MSU, Purdue, Neb, PSU, and Northwestern), 4 in the ACC (Pitt, BC, Miami, and GA Tech), 2 in the PAC12 (USC and Stanford), and the three academies.


ND joining the PAC is dumb on so many levels, the Big East will only have Navy in 2015 (possibly the others academies eventually) so they have little incentive to join them either, and if the conference are going to 16 and having only conference champs in the Plus One playoff then staying independent will be very hard.

So the only options are the Big Ten and the ACC.

I believe that the ACC would be the best solution for multiple reasons.

1st they are the weaker conference between the two, which sounds bad until you really think about it. ND prides itself on rivalries and would probably keep at least one of their major ones or rotate two of them every two years or so. By joining the ACC they can keep USC/Michigan rotating every two years and be praised for playing such a hard SOS while they are really playing an easy ACC North schedule (UConn, BC, Cuse, Pitt, Maryland, VA Tech, UVA) and occasionally a good team from the South (Miami, FSU, Clemson, GA Tech, UNC). In the Big Ten, they could keep the USC game every year but they'd have to play a schedule with the Legends Division (Neb, Mich, MSU, Iowa, Minn, Northwestern) plus at least one good team from the Leaders Division every year (tOSU, PSU, Wisconsin). Stack those SOS against each other and you can see that the Big Ten would obviously be harder. If you rank them the elites are Nebraska/Michigan and VA Tech, goods are MSU/Iowa and Pitt, and the rest rotate between average and bad. Notre Dame would absolutely secure the ACC in with the football elites and secure their membership for years to come and even they lose their biggest 2 fb schools (Clemson and Florida St) to the SEC they could easily add Rutgers and Temple/Nova and still be considered an elite football conference. This would allow ND to get back to what it wants to do most of all...win. Winning a conference title would feel good, and if it also provides easier access to the 4 team playoff then that's even better. If we use the Big Ten's model of top 4 conference champs, all ND would really have to do is win the ACC and be better than the SEC/B1G/B12/PAC champs which is conceivable. ND getting some special rule this time around seems unlikely since pretty much every conference wants them to quit their independence for one reason or another.

2nd reason is that ND has the Midwest locked down. If you grew up in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, or Ohio you know ND. They are absolutely huge in Chicago (the Big Ten's largest media market) so what more do they Irish gain from joining the B1G? Not much in the form of a recruiting foothold or increased viewership. But in the ACC they'd be gaining/keeping their foothold in NYC and NE now that the ACC has expanded (Syracuse, BC, ND, UConn will own that market over Rutgers, Seton Hall, St John's, Providence, Temple, Nova, Gtown) plus adding DC/Maryland/Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida (both North and South) to their viewership.

They only reasons to join the Big Ten over the ACC is money, academics, and geography; and while those all sound like great reasons think about it for a minute.

Money- while the Big Ten has a big TV contract and the Big Ten network, the ACC has secured a huge contract too and hasn't started a network yet either, so they can't use the Big Ten's and new PAC12's models and get huge bang for their buck with ND on board. The ACC has a huge growing population in its footprints especially when compared to the dying rust belt, and with the exception of Indiana, Purdue, Penn St, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida they basically monopolize the current regions they are in not including the Big East's weak slate. I could very easily see ND and the ACC working together on a big TV and network deal before the Irish join (including telling them whether to take Rutgers or UConn for the 16th member) so that they are assured that joining the ACC will be profitable for all.

Academics- OK so every member of the Big Ten is in the AAU (but Nebraska who just got kicked out), and only AAC members GA Tech, UNC, Pitt, Maryland, and Virginia are in the AAU (plus Syracuse just resigned), still BC, Wake, Duke and Miami are high quality schools just like ND that don't do the right kind of research to get into the AAU, so the worst schools ND would be associating with are Clemson, FSU, VA Tech, and NCSt. I give the Big Ten the advantage in academics but come on its not like that big of a drop off, even Stanford associates with AZ St, WA St, and OR St (and possibly Texas Tech and Okie St in the future).

Geography- ND has been playing New York, New Jersey, New England, DC, Pitt and others in the North East regularly for years plus annual bouts with Standford/USC, this would be a non move for them. People like to talk about how geographically ND should be in the Big Ten but historically they've played in the areas of the ACC division they would be in for a long time now, and like I wrote above they are no stranger to playing Miami or GA Tech, plus bowls Florida. If they were in the division with the NC and Southern schools then fine the Big Ten would win but they won't be. The ACC fits ND just as well as the Big Ten does and I think from ND's perspective it may even be better.

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