ACC will stay with an 8-game football schedule in 2013 and beyond
So much for the nine-game ACC football schedule.
The league announced Wednesday that it will stick with an eight-game conference schedule for 2013 and beyond, a reversal from the nine-game slate the athletic directors and faculty representatives agreed to go to in February.
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The move is aimed to ease scheduling tensions for teams like Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech that have annual rivalry games out of conference with BCS-caliber foes, a concern for those schools with another marquee opponent, Notre Dame, coming into the scheduling rotation soon.
Once Pittsburgh and Syracuse make it a 14-team league next season, teams will play their six division rivals, a primary crossover opponent and one rotating opponent from the opposite division each year.
The eighth game will rotate among the other six Atlantic Division schools (Clemson, Florida State, Maryland, N.C. State, Wake Forest and Syracuse), meaning those teams will come to town only once every 12 years.
Notre Dame, which remains independent in football but will play five games against ACC schools every season starting as early as 2014, will still play every school at least once every three years. That game is independent of the eight-game ACC schedule.
The move puts Virginia Tech in a bit of a bind in 2013. The Hokies originally had Pittsburgh as a non-conference game. The Panthers now become a division game, but Tech still has three Atlantic Division foes on the schedule — Boston College, Florida State and Maryland.
The Eagles will stay as a primary crossover partner, but either the Seminoles or Terrapins will have to go to get down to eight conference games, leaving a need for another non-conference game.
Virginia Tech’s other non-conference opponents in 2013 are Alabama in the Georgia Dome and Marshall and Western Carolina at home.
Here’s the full release on the ACC’s scheduling decisions today, with other sports listed as well.
October 3, 2012 - 1:30 PM
Have to wonder if this is the result of the snafu between the PAC-12 and B1G?
This makes sense. It would have been unfair for some teams to have 5 conference games at home and some to have 4. I hate the Hokies will have to drop either FSU or Maryland. They’ll have to scramble to find a replacement and the Hokie haters will complain about their non-conference schedule once more.
OH YES, ALABAMA. WHAT WILL THE EXCUSES BE FOR THAT SURE TO HAPPEN LOSS FOR THE HOKIES?
OH YES, THAT IS RIGHT, WE HAVE HEARD ALL OF THE EXCUSED BEFORE, SO IT WILL
NOT BE ANYTHING NEW.
Will Notre Dame replace one of the rotating Atlantic Division rivals or be scheduled in addition to? In other words, will the schedule in some years include eight ACC games and Notre Dame, or seven ACC games and Notre Dame, with ND counting as the eighth?
I believe Notre Dame will be No. 9. It’s still a game that doesn’t count in the ACC standings. I should clarify that in the post.
After watching Weaver and Beamer do the scheduling shuffle before I would guess that in 2013 VT will drop FSU for Austin Peay so they can pick up the win and lower the SoS to an acceptable level.
Don’t worry, they already picked up LIBERTY, ODU And RICHMOND for OC games!!
The only way Hokie fans will complain is if Frank Beamer & Jim Weaver schedule some other cupcake like an Arkansas State to go along with current cupcake Western Carolina. We all k now that will happen, and Hokie fans will have a right to complain when it does.
Have to start a new ten win streak, don’t ya know…
The nine game conference schedule was going to be cumbersome anyway. Now, Notre Dame will fill the slot for almost half the conference, while the rest can find other cupcakes to ‘battle’ in September. Thus keeping the ACC’s reputation as a pansy football conference intact. Not as pansy as the Big East, of course, but still pansy.
“One thing is for sure: Virginia Tech’s meetings with Florida State and Clemson will be far less frequent going forward.”
Got to love it.
Beamer’s atrocious record against ranked teams is less likely to get more atrocious. Those ten-win seasons more locked in.
Geez guys, you act like Beamer masterminded the whole thing and is even now firing up a stogie and laughing maniacally.
I guess you folks think Beamer and Weaver are making all of the decisions for the ACC since you seem to be blaming them for this announcment. Hokie fans don’t Want a cupcake either. But whether FSU or Maryland is dropped, at this late date it will be hard to find anyone who is a strong competitor. Schedules are made several years in advance. So go ahead all you Hokie haters, get your uninformed comments about the Hokie schedule ready for 2013. Call us Hokie fans cocky, but we really don’t care what you think.
It’s interesting how quickly teams can reschedule their season opener, but ‘struggle’ to reschedule OOC games against decent opposition, with the excuse always being ‘Years in advance’.
Our GaTech game was set up one year in advance, the Alabama game two years in advance. Neither game provided us with windfalls from ESPN, either. Coverage, yes, windfalls, no. The Boise game was set up on short notice. It happens, any time the teams want it to happen, ‘short notice’ or no.
If Beamer wanted a quality opponent & Weaver would spend some money, we’d have one without issue. The truth is that it’s easier for Beamer to have Weaver find him a cupcake at or near FCS level, pay them $400K, and pad the win total.
Well, the examples you mention are a league game (that’s going to be played every year regardless of when) and two neutral site games where both teams get a payday for showing up. Those are easy ones to find and accommodate.
What’s difficult is finding a home-and-home partner (usually the setup for a BCS-level foe) or the right price for a one-way trip from a smaller school. That negotiation can be trickier. And now all the schools in the ACC basically are doing it at once. That’s not making it easier.
I can not believe that some of you think that any coach at any school has anything to do with the schedule. You just need to complain. Facts get in the way of your complaining.
Spigninelli, that problem is one that even shows itself at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave with amazing frequency.
I can’t believe someone is so willfully ignorant as to claim that coaches have zero input on their team schedules when it is regularly acknowledged in sports media every year that they do indeed have input as to the schedule. At least it is acknowledged everywhere except Blacksburg, where we are supposed to swallow the fantasy that Frank Beamer has nothing to do with the schedule, unless it includes some strong OOC opponents. If it is weak, though, then Frank had no control, LOL… right.
Crooked, do you not understand that EVERY other team has a schedule too? Do you not understand that there is only a small portion of them that want to or can change things on short notice?
Andy, since this was already drawn up for next year, what is so hard about simply playing out the schedule for next year as it stands. I realize that a rivalry game may have to take a 1 year hiatus, but so what?
The problem is that Pitt, once a non-conference game, now becomes a conference game. That gives VT 9 ACC games. Can only have 8. So one has to go. But then it has to be replaced with a non-conference opponent. That’s why they’re thinking of possibly playing a regularly schedule ACC team and just having it be a non-conference game, to same everyone the hassle of finding another opponent to add.