ACC Announces Eight-Game Schedule

Yesterday, the Atlantic Coast Conference unveiled a new league football schedule for the 2013 season.  As in previous years, each team will play eight conference opponents.  But this year's schedule reflects the ACC's decision back in 2011 to expand from twelve to fourteen teams.  On July 1st, the league will welcome Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh (PITT) as members in all sports.  Syracuse will compete in the Atlantic Division while Pittsburgh will be placed in the Coastal Division.  Since both league divisions will consist of seven teams, the ACC's new 8-game football schedule will work as follows:

     1.   Each team will play every opponent in their division, totaling six games (3 home, 3 away).

     2.   The remaining two games (one home, one away) will feature crossover or inter-divisional
           opponents.  One match will consist of primary crossover rivals, while the other game
           features rotating opponents.
 
     3.   The primary crossover matches are listed below:

            Atlantic Division           vs.              Coastal Division 

             Boston College                                 Virginia Tech

             Clemson                                            Georgia Tech

             Florida State                                      University of Miami

             North Carolina State                         North Carolina

             Syracuse                                            Pittsburgh

             Wake Forest                                      Duke

To the ACC's credit, their new scheduling model preserves some traditional rivalry games (e.g., Syracuse-PITT, NC-NC State, Clemson-GA Tech, FSU-Miami) at a time when recent conference realignments have interrupted or suspended them indefinitely.  Some of these now defunct matches include Nebraska-Oklahoma, Missouri-Kansas, Texas-Texas A&M, and West Virginia-PITT.  Even the future of Maryland's annual game with Virginia remains in doubt once Maryland moves to the Big Ten Conference in 2014.  It will be interesting to see if a rivalry between Louisville and Virginia (or Virginia Tech) will take shape when the Cardinals join the ACC as Maryland's replacement. 

More information can be found at the following websites:

ACC Website:  http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/011113aaa.html

FBschedules:    http://www.fbschedules.com/