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ACC Considering Eliminating Divisions In Football

Killing the divisions seems like a good thing for WF. The Atlantic setup is hurting us with Clemson every season. Locking in at least 2 of Duke, State, UNC as the rivals is not bad if we can have a more regular rotation of the rest of the conference.

Here is one possibility the Athletic put together. The only real WTF to me is the Cuse-FSU "rival." Would obviously prefer the big 4 to stay together, and can see how that will cause more weird matchups for other schools. We should have a lot of quality chances at 3-0 pod seasons if this was the setup for us in the near future.

Boston College — Miami, Syracuse, Virginia Tech
Clemson — NC State, Georgia Tech, Florida State
Duke — North Carolina, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech
Florida State — Miami, Clemson, Syracuse
Georgia Tech — Clemson, Duke, Louisville
Louisville — Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech
Miami — Florida State, Boston College, Pittsburgh
North Carolina — Duke, NC State, Virginia
NC State — Clemson, Wake Forest, North Carolina
Pittsburgh — Louisville, Miami, Syracuse
Syracuse — Boston College, Florida State, Pittsburgh
Virginia — Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Wake Forest
Virginia Tech — Virginia, Louisville, Boston College
Wake Forest — Duke, NC State, Virginia
 
Game results and team success are no longer based on anything but who bought the best players through NIL. So there are no more rivalries. “Oh your team beat mine? Well no shit they beat us. Your alumni spent more to bring in the best players. Why would I give a fuck about losing that way? Uh yeah, congrats on winning the game or whatever.”

Schools were rivals because of proximity or history or because maybe winning meant we got a better choice of players because we have such a great school and the kids wanted to be a part of that. Or because our campus is better. Or because the kids/players saw the same great things in our school just like we as alumni/fans did. All that is gone.

Do hate that conference shuffling has killed some rivalries.

I don't think paying players is anything new, there is more transparency now.

The open transfer market is the biggest change IMO and the one that is causing the most chaos. Free transfers + NIL is a whole new world. The incentive now to buy players from other programs is a new thing we haven't seen, versus paying guys out of HS to go to State U.

There are multiple markets opening up now - your traditional HS players, guys who had a strong initial season at a smaller program wanting to upgrade, guys who under-performed at a large program looking to move, and grad transfers. And since this is all new, the pricing hasn't really been established yet. What are each of those guys really worth? I have no idea. Almost wondering if bagmen will spend less time on HS recruits and more time on the guy who proved he can play at the college level - like Addison at Pitt - and go all-in on that for $millions vs. a relatively unknown 18-year-old. Better chance at ROI.

Not sure if this is sustainable or not, we'll know a lot more the next few years than we do now.
 
I definitely agree that NIL will shift more toward transfers of proven players, as those are the BIG impact players each year. Not every freshman player is going to be a CJ Stroud or Bryce Young. But USC/Texas/Alabama getting Addison is going to be a great matchup, seeing what a reasonably established QB (meaning not a freshman, and has had some success) can do with a proven TOP WR will be interesting.

But there will be plenty of $$$ to go toward top HS players from the big schools. It’d be really interesting to see how much/how we use our NIL money.
 
There's no shortage of $$$$ in college football so there's no point in trying to parse out how much will go where like there's a fixed budget. There will always be enough money for big time programs to pay transfers, pay HS recruits, buyout coaches, build shiny new facilities, whatever.
 
Or better yet, just do away with divisions, or set up a system within the division construct like the Pac-12 has where there California schools play each other every year.

The latter probably better for us as we only have to be better than six teams to make the ACCCG as opposed to 12

Glad the ACC honchos are coming around. Takes humans longer than it should but seems like we ultimately move in the direction of progress.

Will be interesting to see if they maintain rivalries such as Clemson-State and UNC-UVa. I'd be cool with playing Virginia every other year, but anyone else besides UNC would be pretty lame
 
I feel like it would defeat the purpose of getting rid of divisions if teams have their cross-division rival and two rivals from their division. That's what UNC would have if their rivals were State, Duke, and UVa. Here are similar set ups in The Athletic example:

Clemson — NC State, Georgia Tech, Florida State
Duke — North Carolina, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech
Florida State — Miami, Clemson, Syracuse
North Carolina — Duke, NC State, Virginia
 
Playing every team once every two years and playing each team on the road once every four is certainly a vast (positive) change
 
Reading The Athletic article, it’s interesting that FSU wants Clemson as a rival.

“Alford, who said conference ADs will meet with ESPN on Wednesday, made his case that Florida State needs Clemson and Miami as two of its three annual conference opponents. He is more flexible on the third.”

Some State fans in the comments want to keep Clemson instead of adding Duke. State lobbying for Clemson would be dumb as shit. Please get Wake away from Clemson. Playing in-state rivals and four teams that aren’t Clemson is a nice path to Charlotte.
 
I selfishly would like to play UVA more as it’s a good excuse to go to Charlottesville.
 
It's an interesting question as a WF fan, which is the best rivalry, however you define that. Think this will depend a lot on where you are from, but for me:

Duke
UNC
State

In that order.

Historically, State may be the most legit "rival" over the years, so I would not want to lose that. Today, State and WF seems the most dissimilar. Duke - WF is a great match up given the academics, school size, and satisfaction of winning against one of the most arrogant fan bases. UNC-WF is the oldest college FB rivalry, and it has really taken a hit in recent years with the off scheduling. The emotion of the past two games makes it clear this still matters a lot to both schools and fan bases. I would still be in favor of having this be an OOC in years we can't play.

We really need rivalry trophies with all three of these schools, how has this not happened. A round-robin Tobacco Road trophy would be sweet.
 
I’m curious where the ACC would stand on WF-UNC nonconference games. Seems like that was a black eye to the conference and they’d be against it under a new format. Of course they could just give us the rivalry back.
 
Playing every team once every two years and playing each team on the road once every four is certainly a vast (positive) change

Wake in Miami once every 4 years could be a nice little vacation.

Most likely Wake would get BC.

But we can break this down:
BC- #therivalry, the have no southern rival
Clemson- Would be nice because it would be a marquee game
Duke- Natural rival
Gtech- Only benefit is recruiting ATL
FSU- They bring alot of fans, but not a compelling rivalry.
Louisville- They lack a distinct rival in conference so could be a maybe, but Pitt seems more likely
Miami- doubtful
UNC- Natural rivalry
NC State- Natural rivalry
Pitt- Nothing other than the last ACC Championship. They are a better fit elsewhere
Cuse- They could do this or BC to give them a southern game
UVA- They have better fits elsewhere
Tech- Not really missing anything

So outside of the North Carolina schools, which they probably wont keep all together, the likely would be Cuse, BC or Clemson. For geographic reasons they will probably give every Northern school a southern rival, and I see Wake getting one of those. Duke, NC State and BC/Cuse seems most likely to me.

I am guessing Notre would be one of the rotating non-conference games. Even if they do join, I do not see them being in the Wake bubble, because the conference can make more money off them elsewhere.
 
Getting Duke, State and BC/Cuse would suck since we already have that.
 
Wake, Duke, NC State, UVa, and Va Tech all want UNC-CH. Therefore, we are probably not getting UNC-CH.

Also, if your annual goal is to reach the CFP; be it four teams or twelve teams or something in between; not playing Clemson, FSU, and/or Miami on a regular basis is a detriment to your overall goal.

Rolling into The ACCCG 12-0 with your biggest wins being against 8-4 UNC-CH and NC State teams, due to scheduling quirks is a great way to miss the playoff.
 
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Wake, Duke, NC State, UVa, and Va Tech all want UNC-CH. Therefore, we are probably not getting UNC-CH.

Also, if your annual goal is to reach the CFP; be it four teams or twelve teams or something in between; not playing Clemson, FSU, and/or Miami on a regular basis is a detriment to your overall goal.

Rolling into The ACCCG 12-0 with your biggest wins being against 8-4 UNC-CH and NC State teams, due to scheduling quirks is a great way to miss the playoff.

Rolling into the ACCCG 12-0 to play a 8-0 or 7-1 opponent is a good way to get into the playoff win or lose.
 
Not if you lose to Clemson, Miami, or FSU after playing a garbage ACC schedule and Army. You might not even get into a 12-team playoff after they take two from the B1G and two from the SEC.
 
So if Georgia plays an 8-4 Auburn, 7-5 Florida, 7-5 Tennessee and 6-6 GA Tech as their schedule that's good enough to make the playoff, rolling into the SEC CG at 12-0?
 
So if Georgia plays an 8-4 Auburn, 7-5 Florida, 7-5 Tennessee and 6-6 GA Tech as their schedule that's good enough to make the playoff, rolling into the SEC CG at 12-0?

Yep. The marquee wins on Georgia's schedule going into the SECCG were 9-3 Clemson, 9-3 Kentucky, and 8-4 Arkansas. They got destroyed in the CG and still went to the CFP.
 
It is cool to see a Georgia fan come on the boards and acknowledge LOWF is only the right schedule away from being a CFP contender.
 
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