Fixin’ College Football: Shuffling the Conferences

Realignments that Actually Make Sense

Although still over a month away, it’s never too early to start talking football, in this case college football. As we all know, the college game has a ton of flaws, most notably the lack of a playoff system, but another major flaw that often goes overlooked is the poor layout of some of the conferences. As one of the most important aspects of college football, the conferences are supposed to organize the 120 teams in some efficient manner, create and maintain rivalries, allow fans to support their teams, and eventually reveal the top teams in the country at the end of the regular season. Although the 11 Division 1-A conferences satisfy these criteria to an extent, the system can be improved as a whole to make it easier for fans to support their teams, improve competition, and create a more fair shot for teams heading to the postseason. Not only is it important to make conferences competitive, but making conferences work geographically is an important aspect that frequently goes unnoticed. A system that is laid out well geographically allows fans to travel to more away games instilling fiercer rivalries and cuts transportation costs for schools (which is something not to be taken lightly in the current economy). In the next series of posts, I list different options for each conference to consider as well as my best proposed solution (often times regardless of the financials of the situation).

Part 1 of 11

ACC

Established 1953 (Expansion 2004-05)
12 Teams
7 States
Longest Distance Between Schools: 1261 Miles (Boston College and Miami)

Atlantic
Boston College
Clemson
Florida State
Maryland
NC State
Wake Forest

Coastal
Duke
Georgia Tech
Miami
North Carolina
Virginia
Virginia Tech

The Atlantic Coast Conference is one of the better laid out conferences in the country although its latest expansion of Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech did upset some of its allure. While the addition of Miami and VT did create in-state rivalries within the ACC with Florida State and Virginia respectively, these two schools along with BC just seem to fit in better with the Big East schools. Miami didn’t need to join the ACC to begin a rivalry with Florida State; the two schools had played each other in the regular season 53 times in the last 59 years and every year since 1968. Similarly VT didn’t need the ACC to continue its bitter rivalry with Virginia, a rivalry that began in 1895 and has seen the schools play each other every year since 1970. While the latest expansion did disrupt some of the tradition (before the latest expansion Florida State and Georgia Tech were the only ACC schools that did not originate with the conference in 1953), having 12 teams in the conference allows for two separate divisions and a conference championship game. Though the football rivalries are not on par with other BCS football conferences or even ACC basketball, the ACC is a solid conference with a layout that is accommodating to fans. Aside from BC, most of the schools are within driving range of each other, allowing for the potential of bitter rivalries if the teams are good enough. With Wake Forest emerging as a perennial contender, Georgia Tech already a dangerous team utilizing a Triple Option attack that took down Georgia last year, and powerhouses VT, BC, and the Florida schools, the ACC has a lot to look forward to. Though the depth of the ACC has room to improve, competition is strong and fans will continue to improve rivalries. -J.S.

Solution: Keep the ACC as it is