ACC announces new football scheduling model starting in 2023

June 24, 2024

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced a new football scheduling model Tuesday, allowing each team to play every other team in the conference at least once every four years. The new model and first four-year cycle will begin during the 2023 season.

The schedules will be based on a 3-5-5 structure, with each team playing its primary opponents annually and then playing the remaining 10 teams in the conference twice every four years, once on the road and once at home.

Such a change will eliminate the Atlantic and Coastal divisions, thus creating one all-encompassing football division. The end-of-season conference championship game will be determined by the top two teams based on conference winning percentage.

The three primary opponents for each team are as follows:

Boston College: Miami, Pitt, Syracuse
Clemson: Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State
Duke: North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest
Florida State: Clemson, Miami, Syracuse
Georgia Tech: Clemson, Louisville, Wake Forest
Louisville: Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia
Miami: Boston College, Florida State, Louisville
North Carolina: Duke, NC State, Virginia
NC State: Clemson, Duke, North Carolina
Pitt: Boston College, Syracuse, Virginia Tech
Syracuse: Boston College, Florida State, Pitt
Virginia: Louisville, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Pitt, Virginia, Wake Forest
Wake Forest: Duke, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech

(Photo: Bob Donnan / USA Today)

GO DEEPER

What the ACC's new division-less scheduling model gets right, wrong: Raynor

Is this the end of Coastal Chaos?

Nicole Auerbach, senior college football writer: Pour one out for the ACC Coastal, the best and most chaotic division in sports. At one point, it had seven different champions over seven years — a feat that may never be matched in any other collegiate or professional sports division.

Sure, some might argue that statistic is a sign of mediocrity, especially because all the Coastal champion often earned was an opportunity to get beat by Clemson in the ACC title game.

But I don't think that's the right approach to such an incredible achievement. It was about balance. It was about seven programs whose ceilings and floors were closer to one another than we're used to seeing.

I loved the unpredictability of the division and a goal that always seemed attainable for each team entering the season: Winning the Coastal. I'll miss it.

What are the major benefits of the new schedule?

Matt Fortuna, national college football writer: The benefits are twofold: The elimination of divisions means the two best teams will play in the ACC title game, which too often became one-sided because of the Atlantic champion's strength over the Coastal champion.

And the rotating opponent schedule means every ACC school will face the other 13 schools both home and away at least once during every four-year cycle.

Too often, these teams would go seven years without playing each other. In the case of Miami and Wake Forest, they will have gone 11 years without playing each other (2013, 2024), as the 2020 game was wiped out due to COVID-19.

Which schools may stand to gain the most from the change?

Fortuna: That depends on your definition of "gain." Miami and Virginia Tech probably benefit competitively from playing each other — at least when both are at their peaks — but the league as a whole loses without that former Big East matchup.

So, too, do those two schools financially, as they could usually count on stronger home turnouts when the other comes to town. Ditto for Georgia Tech, which avoided Florida State as a permanent opponent but could have counted on a marquee home game against the Seminoles every other year.

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