ACC commissioner John Swofford announced today that the conference athletic directors have voted to keep an eight-game football schedule. In addition, the ACC will vote to add a strength of schedule requirement similar to the SEC.
The requirement, if passed, stipulates that each ACC team must play a non-conference game against a team from the power five conferences (Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC) or Notre Dame beginning in 2017.
The vote is reportedly set to take place on Thursday and is said to merely be a “formality.” The SEC adopted a similar football scheduling format last month.
Four ACC teams meet that requirement already due to annual in-state rivalry games. Clemson plays South Carolina, Florida State plays Florida, Georgia Tech plays Georgia, and Louisville plays Kentucky.
Five teams will also meet the strength of schedule requirement each year due to the conference’s partnership with Notre Dame. But in some seasons, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Louisville will have Notre Dame plus their annual SEC rival on their schedule.
That is likely one of the main factors in keeping an eight-game conference schedule. With 10 games set in any given year, a few teams would have little flexibility in scheduling the remaining two games.
Also, a nine-game schedule is unbalanced because teams have only four conference home games every other season.
On the other hand, the Big 12 and Pac-12 already have a nine-game schedule and the Big Ten will move in that direction in 2016. There doesn’t seem to be much griping from them about nine-games, and the Pac-12 coaches have even resorted to slamming the SEC for its chosen format.
A few other notes on the ACC scheduling format:
- The ACC’s new scheduling requirements will not forbid teams from playing games against the FCS.
- It hasn’t been determined if games against BYU, Army or Navy will fulfill the power five requirement (Navy likely won’t because they join the AAC in 2015).
- Games against Notre Dame scheduled as part of the ACC partnership will fulfill the power five requirement.
- Commissioner Swofford said the ACC will keep the existing divisions and permanent crossover rivalries.
View Comments (33)
good move.....
Actually, four ACC teams already meet the requirement. Georgia Tech plays Georgia every year in addition to the other three annual SEC-ACC pairings.
Right, how could I forget?
Navy will be in the AAC by then, so they wouldn't fulfill the requirement
Notre Dame WILL NOT be in the ACC.
That's correct but they play five ACC teams per year (actually 4 in 2014, 6 in 2015, then 5 thereafter).
Right.
SEC leads the way and the ACC follows. Both the ACC and SEC's decision to remain at an 8-game conference schedule appears to only impact lower tier programs in the two conferences (NC St, WF, Vandy, Miss St, as well as Misso and Missi).
ACC:
2014 - WF and NC St are the only two ACC programs to not have scheduled a P5 program for OOC play.
2015 - NC St has yet to schedule a P5 to OOC, but still has one TBA.
2016 - both NC St and BC do not have P5 on their OOC schedules, but each still has a TBA.
2017 - Miami FL has yet to schedule P5 to OOC, but still has one TBA.
SEC:
2014 - Missi, TAM, Vandy and Miss St have not scheduled a P5 program for OOC play.
2015 - Missi has not scheduled a P5 program for OOC play. Same for Misso, Vandy, and Miss St but the three programs still have a TBA.
2016 - Much of the SEC OOC schedule is yet to be announced. At this time, Auburn, Alabama, and Misso have no OOC games scheduled. Both Missi and Miss St do not have P5 on OOC schedule, but each has a TBA.
2017 - Much of the SEC OOC schedule is yet to be announced. At this time, Auburn, and Alabama have no OOC games scheduled. Both Vandy and Miss St do not have P5 on OOC schedule, but each has a TBA.
Unless something changes, it appears the overwhelmingly majority of SEC programs will continue to schedule THREE OOC games with G5 or FCS programs.
Whereas, after 2014, future schedules show half of ACC programs scheduled OOC games with THREE G5 or FCS programs, the other half opting to play TWO OOC games with P5 programs. I suspect you will see the entire ACC move towards scheduling TWO OOC games with P5 programs every season.
It will be interesting to watch how the SEC's effectively non-decision to remain at the status quo pans out.The Playoff Committee will definitely take this into consideration.
P5 = Power Conference
G5 = Group of Five Conference
It will be interesting to see if the strength of the SEC as a whole will be enough to counteract the cupcake non-conference schedules. In recent years most FBS teams must go undefeated to get a shot at the title. The exception has been teams coming out of the SEC. There is a tremendous amount of respect for those that can navigate through the SEC gauntlet with only a few blemishes. Schools in other conferences have been afforded no such luxuries.
With the introduction of the College Football Playoff, non-conference schedules will probably be a factor when deciding which 1-loss (or perhaps 2-loss) teams are more deserving. That being said, a typical SEC schedule consists of so many quality teams to the point that it doesn't really matter who they play out of conference. The other P5 teams are in a position where they need to beef up their schedule in order to catch up. The SEC will stick with the status quo as long as they keep getting a shot at the title. If after a few years their strength of schedule keeps them out of the playoffs (highly unlikely) then we could see a 9 game conference schedule or perhaps a limit on lower tier competition. Until then, why would they make the path to the championship any more difficult than it already is?
"Why change the ingredients of success?"
Compare to the three conferences with 9-game conferences schedules (including B1G in 2016),
Future OOC schedules NOT including at least one P5 program:
B12:
2014 - Baylor*.
2015 - Baylor*, Ok St, Kan St.
2016 - Baylor*, Kansas. (Kan St and WV still have a TBA).
2017 - (Kan St, WV and Kansas still has a TBA).
2018 - (OK St. Kan St and Tex Tech still have a TBA).
2019 - Baylor*. (Ok St, WV, Kan St, Tex Tech and Kansas still have a TBA).
*Baylor - annual game with SMU injures the Bears OOC, unless Baylor adds a P5 program to their OOC schedules. None are scheduled through 2016 or in 2019. Baylor's only P5 OOC games through 2019 is a home and home with Duke in 2017-18.
P12:
2014 - Colo$, Arizona, Ore St.
2015 - Colo$, Wash. (Arizona still has a TBA).
2016 - Utah#, Wash St. (Arizona still has a TBA).
2017 - Utah#, Wash St, Colo$. (Arizona and Cal still have a TBA).
2018 - Arizona. (Arizona St. Cal, Wash, Utah#, Oregon St and Wash St still have a TBA).
2019 - (Arizona St, Utah#, Cal, Wash St, Arizona and Oregon St still have a TBA).
$Colorado - annual rivalry game with Colo State will injure Buffalo OOC. The Buffs however are visting Michigan in 2016 and home and home with Nebraska in 2019-19 and 2023-24 and home and home with Minnesota in 2021-22.
#Utah - annual rivalry game with BYU injures Ute OOC. Utah has home and home scheduled with Michigan in 2014-15.
B1G:
2014 - %
2015 - %
2016 - Maryland, Purdue.
2017 - Illinois. (Wisconsin and Indiana still have a TBA).
2018 - Illinois. (Wisconsin, Mich St, Minn and Indiana still have a TBA).
2019 - (Mich St, Minn, Purdue, Illinois and Indiana still have a TBA).
2020 - (Nebraska, Minn, Illinois and Indiana still have a TBA).
2021 - (Penn St and Indiana still have a TBA).
%note: 9-game conf schedule takes effect in 2016. Thus NW and Minnesota Will have to cancel OOC games currently on 2016 schedules.
The B1G will play 8-game conf schedules in 2014 & 2015 and B1G programs will play FOUR OOC games each. Only FOUR B1G programs are playing TWO OOC games each against P5 programs in both 2014 and 2015, whereas the other TEN B1G programs will each play THREE OOC games against G5 or FCS programs. The Playoff Committee will definitely include this in their evaluations for 2014 and 2015.
BYU does not hurt Utah's out of conference schedules. Northern Colorado, Weber St., Idaho St., Southern Utah, and San Jose St. hurt their out of conference schedules.
Wait what? Why would Army potentially count as one of the required group of 5 games and Navy wouldn't just b/c Navy is joining the AAC? Navy has been far better than Army as of late winning 12 straight and 15 of the last 17. vs Army. BYU probably wont even get the Notre Dame like exception so there is just no way Army would and Navy wouldnt.
Reporters mentioned Army and Navy with BYU and Notre Dame because they are all independents right now. There's no way Army and Navy will count as a Power Five game.
BYU should absolutely get the P5 inclusion. They schedule more and compete better against P5 schools than any other Group of Five school...and than many mediocre P5 schools. They have a 30,000+ student body and average around 64K in home game attendance (this would be #3 in the Big 12, #5 in the PAC 12, #6 in the ACC, and #8 in the Big Ten).
Regardless, any ACC team that schedules BYU knows that it helps their strength of schedule. The real issue is whether the risk of losing to BYU, even at home, will scare off ACC teams from scheduling the Cougars.
As an independent, BYU is actually well-situated to fill in some late season scheduling holes created by Notre-ACC and ACC-SEC matchups. PAC 12 have already seen this value and have started to schedule BYU in November.
The best thing for the B10, B12, and PAC to do now is make a scheduling agreement of 9 conference games + 1 mandatory game against Power 5 teams.
Basically just saying we can do the same thing you are doing, with the extra conference game. No problem whatsoever.
Absolutely! The only way to have a beauty contest (aka, CFP selection process) is if the contestants actually compete with each other.
As is, teams are saying - my conference championship and my undefeated home record against Group of Five and FCS opponents is better than yours! It's ridiculous.
Play the games on the field. Why in the world don't the Big 10, Big 12, and PAC 12 just schedule each other out of conference? THAT would help to actually determine who deserves the CFP selections and who the true championship is!
ACC Atlantic fan: Hey guys! Nice of you to come to town and play us. What conference are you from?
ACC Coastal fan: We are in the ACC Conference.
ACC Atlantic fan: Really? We are in the ACC Conference too. That's funny, I've been going here for 6 years and have yet to see you guys here.
You can take the above story and replace it with SEC East and SEC West too!
This article should actually say Power 5.
Group of 5 means the other 5 conferences that are not power conferences.
Power 5 = ACC/B10/B12/PAC/SEC
Group of 5 = AAC/MWC/MAC/CUSA/SBELT
Just throwing it out there, this article is all over and I think they confused a few people with their wording on this matter.
Seriously, how many times do we have to clear this up?
It's actually all over the place wherever you look. I was under the impression that "Group of Five" and "Power Five" were the same thing. Hopefully this will be fleshed out soon.
"Power 5" = 1-A
Other 1-A's >>>>> 1-AA
current 1-AA's >>>>>> 1-AAA
"Group of Five" is commonly used by major news reporting sites to refer to the American, Mountain West, MAC, Conference USA, and Sun Belt conference. The highest rated champion from among these conferences will receive an invitation to play in one of the CFP's "access" bowls. I think it's pretty standard. Here are links to articles using this "Group of Five" reference from: ESPN, CBSSports, Sports Illustrated, USAToday, and Sporting News...
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/94936/college-football-playoff-qa
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jeremy-fowler/24547508/in-playoff-era-group-of-five-sees-big-payouts-and-big-expenses
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20140310/college-football-playoff-mid-majors/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/05/09/college-football-playoff-cinderellas-power-conferences/8917705/
http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2014-04-29/college-football-playoff-conference-games-sec-acc-big-ten-12-pac-committee-league-selection
Thanks. I can show you several examples of major news sites using Group of Five for the BCS, but most are from last year. Looks like they changed to power five along the way.
Yeah, it wasn't your fault Kevin. It was how the article was worded. I just see it confusing so many people, especially ones who don't follow CFB as closely...
The one thing they missed, in my opinion, was switching the VT & BC crossover games with the UVA & Louisville. VT & Louisville seem like a more natural paring and so does UVA & BC. UVA (#23) and BC (#31) are closer in academic rankings, and so are VT (#69) and Louisville (#161). The switched pairs are closer in distance, which I think helps rivalries. Not a lot of games between BC and UVA (5), but there are only 2 games between UVA and Louisville. VT and Louisville have played 7 times, not a lot, but I think a better long term fit. VT and BC do have 22 games, but I know some VT they like the switch. I have even seen on some forums that BC guys would like the switch.