ACC Schedule to Stay at 16 games

This isn't exactly hot of the presses news, but last week the ACC decided to keep its men's basketball schedule at 16 games for the 2007-2008 season. With all ACC teams essentially allowed to play 30-31 games every season beginning last season, a move to 18 games was seen as somewhat likely, however it was not to be. Needless to say, as far as most fans are concerned, myself included, 18 games would have been a step in the right direct after expansion destroyed the home and home scheduling that had been part of the ACC for the first 50 seasons of its existence.

But unless the league decides to go to 22 conference games - a true home and home schedule - which will not be happening anytime soon, an 18 game schedule would probably be for the best.

Think of it this way. The league could be divided into three divisions for scheduling purposes; the North (Boston College, Virginia, Maryland, Virginia Tech), the Central (Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest), and the South (Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami). These divisions would be only used for scheduling and would not be used in the standings as they are in football and baseball.

With an 18 game schedule, 6 of those games would come from an annual home and home with each of the three teams in your division. Then the other schools would be played in a home and home series on an alternating basis.

For instance, Maryland might play a home and home with Duke in year one, followed by a one game series at Cameron in year two, another home and home in year three, and finally a one game series only at Comcast in year four. In this way, in a four year rotation, each school would play every other school at least 6 times, including at least 3 games at home against each.

This proposal would be better for a number of reasons. First, it would allow a team to face the majority of the other teams in the conference in a home and home each season. In addition, teams would face any given team more often.

Of course, Maryland fans might not be too happy that the home and home each season with Duke would go by the wayside, but it would only be a loss of one game at Comcast every four seasons. And depending on how the scheduling is done, those years would likely include a game against North Carolina at Comcast. In fact, it would make sense for every team to get at least one "marquee" home game against North Carolina or Duke every season.

Now that we've fixed basketball scheduling, let's fix the football divisions and scheduling...