I’ve already discussed what I like about the ACC schedule, now here’s what I don’t like.
You can check out the full ACC schedule here.
Clemson and Florida State playing September 20th, 2014
Remember when Clemson and Florida State played last year on October 20th? It was arguably the most hyped regular season ACC game, maybe ever. So what does the ACC do? Move the game to September. You can’t play every big game in late October or November, but this one should be. This could have been the ACC’s version of LSU/Alabama, but no. Yes I heard the argument that if Clemson/FSU play the loser has the rest of the season to move up in the polls. That may be true, but at this point needs the ACC needs more nationally relevant games, and having your two strongest football programs playing anywhere from late October to early November is the way to do that.
Over-Scheduling - Especially by Virginia
Look I admire tough scheduling as much as the next guy, but not when you are trying to rebuild a program. Last year Virginia scheduled BYU and Oregon. Oddly enough despite going 2-10 last year the Cavaliers did beat BYU. This year though they have OOC games with a good UCLA team and then travel to Provo, Utah where BYU is very difficult to beat. These kind of games don’t help Virginia and they do nothing but add to the perception that the ACC is a struggling football conference. Come on Virginia when you start winning at least 7 games a year you can schedule up. Right now you just need to start winning games.
Boston College and Florida State\Louisville at Notre Dame, November 22, 2014
I hope this was somehow unavoidable, because I thought the ACC figured this out last year. Cupcakes or Byes before big in state rivalry games. Why is Florida State playing a conference game and Louisville playing at Notre Dame before their games against Florida and Kentucky? Yes the Seminoles and Cardinals should be much better than the Gators and Wildcats, but they should be preparing for these games like the SEC always does. Kentucky has a BYE before Louisville, and Florida has Eastern Kentucky. Georgia is playing Charleston Southern before their game with Georgia Tech, and South Carolina is playing South Alabama the week before Clemson. The SEC doesn’t do this by accident.
First BYES on October 25th
Remember when everyone said, yeah great for college football teams, they’ll get two BYEs a year. That’s a great way to break up the season and rest players. Louisville and NC State open the season with 8 straight games. They don’t get their first BYEs until nearly November! That’s brutal for both teams. Syracuse gets a BYE in Week 2, then plays for 9 straight weeks. The ACC should have 2 simple guidelines, no BYEs before week 3, and have a maximum of 6 straight weeks of football.
The 6-1-1 format has got to go…
I don’t care how the ACC does it, but with 14 teams, and Notre Dame in the scheduling mix, the 6-1-1 format has got to go. I know there is discussion of something changing too. I believe it will happen. You don’t need to necessarily realign the divisions, but it’s now been 5 full seasons since Florida State has played Georgia Tech in a regular season game. There are plenty of examples of this. Under any format ACC teams should not be going whole classes without playing each other at least once.
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