Before we dive deep into basketball over the next few weeks, I had few more thoughts on the ACC football schedule for 2013. Recently I wrote about the 5 things I like about the schedule, now lets take a look at the 5 things I don’t like about the ACC Schedule this year.
2nd and 3rd Week Byes
When it was announced there would be 2 Bye Weeks in the schedule, I thought most teams would get a much needed break in late September\early October to go along with a late October\early November break. Why are Boston College, Duke, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Maryland, and Syracuse the only ACC teams without a Bye in week 2 or 3? Was it really necessary that more than half the ACC teams have to take a Bye week that early in the season? I could understand if there were some difficulties with a couple of teams but 8? Several ACC are still playing playing 7 weeks or more in a row.
Teams with multiple Thursday night games
I have no problem with Thursday night games. In fact I am a fan of them. What I don’t like is teams like Clemson and Georgia Tech having to play 2 in one year especially in road affairs that are normally well traveled by their fans. Georgia Tech has to travel to Clemson on 11/4 after hosting Virginia Tech on 9/26. Yellow Jacket fans usually travel well to Clemson, but that’s 2 Thursday night games. As we mentioned Clemson hosts Georgia Tech, but they also have to travel to NC State on 9/19. That’s also a game many Clemson fans will go to.
North Carolina also has two Thursday night games, 8/29 at South Carolina and 10/17 at Miami. Now I don’t suspect all that many UNC fans would travel all the way to Miami even on a Saturday, but that’s still a bit tough for the UNC football team.
On a side note as @HokieSmash and many Hokie fans have said why isn’t Virginia Tech hosting a Thursday game? They can thank their AD Jim Weaver That might be the one fanbase that doesn’t mind 2 Thursday nights as they play at Georgia Tech already, but Thursday night in Blacksburg is just something special
Loss of Virginia Tech return trip to Florida State
The ACC doesn’t get a lot of marquee football matchups, and Virginia Tech FSU is one of the funnest ones that doesn’t happen often. Last year Noles and Hokies played one of the best ACC games of the year on a Thursday night in front a great atmosphere despite Virginia Tech’s struggles. The Hokies were supposed to play at Florida State this year but due to expansion that game won’t happen. That’s a shame as it would have lifted a generally modest Florida State home schedule. I wish there would have been a way to keep that game.
NC State’s out of conference scheduling
Every single ACC team plays at least 1 name OOC opponent this season except NC State who scheduled Louisiana Tech, Richmond, Central Michigan, and East Carolina. They don’t even play one of them on the road. Even Duke who has a fairly weak OOC schedule travels to Middle Tennessee. Come on NC State wasn’t there anybody you could have put on the schedule? Heck Virginia put Oregon and BYU on theirs and Syracuse has Northwestern and Penn State. Those weren’t traditional rivals, they had seek out those two games.
Why are Syracuse and Miami not playing an ACC game until October?
Um Georgia Tech will have played 3 ACC games before either Syracuse and Miami play a single ACC game. As I posted before, Pitt hosting FSU on Labor Day that’s a good thing. Syracuse not playing an ACC game until October 6th? I like that its marquee game with ACC football power Clemson, but really let’s get the Cuse playing an ACC game before a quarter of the season is over.
Miami is weird case too. They get Georgia Tech on the 6th, but then their second ACC game is not until October 19th and against UNC. Seriously? Some ACC teams will have played 4 ACC games by that point.
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