New scheduling model

[Ken D]

How does everybody feel about the new scheduling model for the 14 team league, which will start in the upcoming season? UNC and State will play each other every year, but State and Duke will only play once every six years (as will UNC and Wake).

[Marty Da Hungry Wolf]

Can't/don't/won't understand that. Duke can play Miami on the same field two years in a row but can't play NC State but once every six?

Whatever.

Does anybody honestly think if the B1G ever got to 14-16 schools that Ohio State and Michigan would only play once every six years but they'd play at (for example) Marshall two years running? Gimme a break ...

[Ken D]

The B1G has gotten to 14 schools with Maryland and Rutgers. It will be interesting to see what they do. They deal with the OSU-Michigan issue by putting them in the same division, just like UNC and Duke are. With an even number of cross-division rivals it's a little easier to schedule. Basically, the ACC decided to designate one cross-division rival as a permanent scheduling partner, thus UNC/State and Duke/Wake.

That also means that UNC will only play Clemson and FSU once every six years as well. FSU sort of gets screwed, since they are in the same division as Clemson plus they will now play Miami every year as their cross-division partner.

Frankly, I think this will only be a stop gap anyway, as I expect the league to either go up to 16 voluntarily or back down to 12 involuntarily.

[Marty Da Hungry Wolf]

Gotcha. That makes sense. Still, seems to me each team should be able to play every other team at least every 2-3 years. 6 years between games for schools 20 miles apart with almost 100 years of history just seems stupid to me.

[Ken D]

They could get it to every three years by having 9 conference games, but that limits out of conference scheduling. Look at FSU. Imagine having to play not only Clemson and Miami every year, but Florida as well. They would like to have 7 home games every year, so they would have to play one FCS and one FBS patsy. Those games wouldn't draw as well as an intersectional game against a BCS league team. They have a big stadium, and they haven't been filling it. That's why they've been flirting with the Big XII.

[Marty Da Hungry Wolf]

It probably is simply a product of "super-conferencing".

[mattncsu02]

I figured something screwy would come from making the conference bigger. However, if I had the choice of having to play Carolina or Duke every year, I would have picked Carolina. That's the big rivalry game everybody from both schools wants to see every year.

[Ken D]

Jan 13, 2013 21:01:09 GMT -5 mattncsu02 said:

I figured something screwy would come from making the conference bigger. However, if I had the choice of having to play Carolina or Duke every year, I would have picked Carolina. That's the big rivalry game everybody from both schools wants to see every year.

Getting to 16 teams could let all four NC schools play every year. But that would still require a nine game league schedule. But getting there would also require finding two more schools where the attraction is mutual and the potential for a bigger TV deal exists. That's not looking (to me, at least) as likely as the possibility that the ACC could lose a couple of members and go back down to 12.

I heard an interesting speculation regarding the Big East today. It appears to me that UConn and Cincy would both like to join the ACC, but have been repeatedly spurned. The defection of the C7 schools leaves them in a conference that is relatively weak in all sports, including basketball.

It's been suggested that they are considering joining with the C7 schools for all sports except football, and joining the Mountain West for football only. This gets them back into a coast to coast football conference like they thought they had, and one that is likely to be an annual contender for a BCS spot.

If you take them off the market, I don't see anybody not already in a major conference that adds significant value to the league. An increase by the NCAA in regular season games to 13 might be enough to allow ND to join in football, especially if the league went to a divisional model with no in-conference crossover games. That would give ND free rein to maintain all its traditional B1G and PAC rivalries - especially if traditional rival Navy were to be the 16th team and placed in ND's division.

Bottom line - don't get too invested in the current scheduling model. I don't expect it to last.

[Tizu]

I really haven't had time to look at it closely, but I don't like AT ALL, the fact that State and Duke who are just a few miles apart will only play once every 6 years. That's ludicrous!

[Ken D]

Of course, there is nothing preventing them from scheduling each other as a non-conference game. That's what I'd recommend. I'd sure rather see that than South Alabama.

[mattncsu02]

Oh yeah, I would much rather play Duke every year than South Alabama!

[Marty Da Hungry Wolf]

Count me in on that one as well.

[Tizu]

Make that 3. The new scheduling model sucks.