ACC 2020 schedule paves the way for division-less super conferences?

[DuckTownHusker]

In case you hadn't heard, the ACC is giving teams a 10-game conference schedule this year, and suspending their divisions. The top two teams overall will play for the ACC title. But even more interesting is that Notre Dame is included in this scheme. 15 total teams. And in theory, you could have Notre Dame win an ACC Championship in 2020. It's perhaps unlikely, but at a minimum they have a 2/15ths chance (13%) of being one of the top two squads to play for a conference title. In practicality, their chances are better, though, as I would estimate that ND is likely a better squad than some teams like Boston College or Wake Forest.

I wonder if this potentially opens up talk about division-less super conferences again. Assuming a home-and-home model where you'd play teams for two consecutive years, you'd have a chance to play every single conference opponent at least once within a three-year span. Given that most FBS players are on a roster for 5 seasons, that's mathematically two guaranteed games against every single conference opponent and then a third game against roughly 66% of them. Pretty solid math.

With the divisional format, we're of course guaranteed 6 Big Ten West games annually, but of the remaining 7 teams in the Big Ten East, we'll only get to 3 per year. That means, by the time a student graduates they'll have likely played each conference opponent twice, but there is an outside chance of missing 1 cross-over opponent, depending on how the schedule rolls around in Year 5.

I know there's a lot of positive to having divisions, but the ACC model is really making me think about the interesting possibilities. And while I generally dislike ND, I'm pulling for them to win an ACC title just for the sheer absurdity of it all.

 

[Porkchopexpress]

I think the biggest drawback is a rematch of a regular season game in a CCG. Granted, that can happen with the divisional model, but I find those rematches less of an issue, because it requires teams to win a division. Maybe that's splitting hairs. On the flip side, a division-less conference would almost assure the two best teams within the conference meeting in the CCG. There won't be any issues where one division offers up an 8 or 9 win team as its winner.

The biggest obstacle is making sure traditional conference rivals play every year. Michigan State is going to want to play Michigan, but Michigan will also need to play Ohio State. Probably an easy fix, but I don't want to see traditional rivals thrown away like NU/OU in the Big XII.

 

[Red Said Ted]

I don’t see Big Ten teams giving up that extra home game which going to 10 conference games would do. We used to have 8 home games. Then the conference went to 9 conference games. Every other year we only have 4 home conference games. With 3 noncon games, the MOST home games we can have those years is 7. That’s if all 3 noncon games are at home, which isn’t always possible, especially if we want to play some decent P5 competition.

In the opposite years, we get 5 home conference games and could have upto 8 home games IF all 3 noncon games are at home.

If we play a 10 game conference schedule we will always have 5 home conference games. But we will only have 2 noncon games. If both are home that only gives us 7 maximum home games EVERY season. If one of those noncon games is a road game now we’re down to 6 home games. 6 or 7 home games every season isn’t going to please fans, and it’s not going to pay the bills. Thus, not gonna happen.