Stop crying about conference games and dropped series. We

Jul 18, 2012, 4:13 PM

are in the ACC, a conference with a great footprint, the eastern seaboard, the top academic BCS conference, the top basketball conference, and a #### good football conference that includes Florida State, Virginia Tech, Miami, Clemson, Georgia Tech, flagship state universities like North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, NC State. A contiguous conference that makes sense geographically and has regional rivalries. We are one of the power five conferences.

The Big12 SEC Bowl is worth $80 million. If the market brings half that for the Orange, the ACC is on an even level in that regard because we don't share it with another conference. Sure we have to pay the opponent something, but it sure won't be a 50-50 split. In years that the Orange is a semi game, it will be worth at least $80 million.

As far as dropping football games, the Ole Miss game was a mutual decision. And I'll bet with the Big12 playing 9 conference games, the Oklahoma State game was mutual as well. We will have 9 ACC conference games, look for the SEC to go this route very shortly. This is the same reason why the Pac12-Big10 scheduling agreement fell through.

The ACC is probably going to get in some sort of scheduling agreement with Notre Dame, maybe 4 games a year. Clemson should not approve this unless it is going to rotate to all teams. So if we play 9 ACC games and South Carolina every year, with Notre Dame every fourth or fifth year, we will not have to answer to anyone about our schedule.

One thing the ACC does need to do is make sure FSU, Clem, and GT play every year to develop these good rivalries. Clemson already does, but FSU and GT are missing their game being in different divisions. FSU has a lot of alums in Atlanta and I don't blame them wanting that game. They have also had some cracker-jack games with GT over the years, though GT hasn't beatne them as much as we have. But GT has beaten Miami quite a few and that is a nice rivalry.

Contrary to most fans, I don't believe the answer is north/south divisions. These divisions would not be well-balanced comptetitively and I don't want Miami in a north division looking odd like they did in the Big East and VT doesn't want to be up there away from southern recruiting grounds. I like the zipper approach to divisions like the ACC has done because it means all the teams have exposure up and down the coast and can recruit in Florida as well and Pennsylvania-New Jersey area.

I wouldn't mind the ACC switching GT into the Atlantic in exchange for Boston College. Then you have the following from north to south in the Atlantic, with the permanent partners. However, I doubt GT would want to be permanent partners with VT while playing FSU and Clemson every year, and I doubt Clemson would want that either. And that brings me to my last adjustment. I don't think there should be permanent partners. How is it fair for anyone to have Duke as a permanent partner while someone else has GT, or VT as a permanent partner. Maybe we should play our 7 six division mates and then rotate three from the other side on two year intervals. I think you would see teams more often that way anyway. This switch also keeps the Atlantic from having the two most northern teams while the Coastal goes no further north than Pitt, something else that bothers FSU, although the Coastal must go all the way south to Miami. I think this switch should seriously be considered. All in all though, I am glad we got Syracuse instead of Pitt in our division. Cuse has a better game atmosphere, but Pitt is probably more difficult to beat.

Atlantic-----------Coastal
Syracuse-----------Boston College
Maryland-----------Pitt
NC State-----------North Carolina
Wake Forest--------Duke
Clemson------------Virginia
Georgia Tech-------Virginia Tech
Florida State------Miami

Bottom line, the ACC is a great conference to be in. Had we just turned down or been spurned by the SEC, I'd be heartbroken. But when things just didn't develop with the Big12, I felt nothing, and I think most of you did too. Why? because I don't think the Big12 was the answer. I never loved that idea.

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rest and at least make the regular season something compelling every week. I'd rather see a schedule with Va. Tech, FSU, Ga. Tech, Miami, soon to be Pitt and whomever else every year instead of this cruddy forced Atlantic/Division hodgepodge we've got now. 12 Saturdays in the fall beats a manufactured alignment of displaced east coast programs chock full of indifferent fan bases, placing its bets on a league championship game to bring national credibility.

Yeah, the ACC has all the ingredients to be great, but we gots ourselves a chef with no sense of taste or smell in the kitchen. The league itself is its own worst enemy and I don't see anything that's happened over the course of this off-season to change that.

Stop crying about conference games and dropped series. We

no kidding...we're lucky to even be in the ACC***

Re: no kidding...we're lucky to even be in the ACC***

ACC is the greatest thing since sliced bread***

Re: no kidding...we're lucky to even be in the ACC***

no doubt...I've been working in the garden area of KMart

Re: no doubt...I've been working in the garden area of KMart

Bingo!!***

It's been six months since we won this conference...

Re: Stop crying about conference games and dropped series. We

he's a smart man....he's got it figured out***

obviously we're going to get a great opponent to come play

tl;dr***

Great conference???

it's a great conference...these flagship universities

a nine-win Notre Dame or our choice of at-large from

ND has won 9 games only 3 times in the past 10 seasons.

Sorry, but this post is idiotic

You failed to comprehend my post.

I think overall, not just football, it is a great conference

yeah because one team for one year getting hot does

And I'm sure you always pull against ACC teams when they

In years that the Orange is a semi game the money isn't ours

Do you have a link to this fact? I actually appreciate

I wouldn't count on not splitting 50-50 unless we want

exactly...we send our champ against the third place team

Re: Stop crying about conference games and dropped series. We

fell asleep at "are"***

Split the football divisions into the top programs and the

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