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ACC examines scrapping divisions, revamping football scheduling

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- After two years of virtual spring meetings due to the COVID pandemic, ACC athletics directors and coaches returned here to the Ritz-Carlton on Monday to begin what is expected to be three or four days of lively discussions.

One of the first topics on the docket was the future of football scheduling and whether the league will scrap the division format that went into place in 2005 in conjunction with the first Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Monday that the conference could implement changes that go into effect as soon as the fall of 2023, but multiple athletics directors said the situation is too "fluid" to pinpoint a timeframe or direction.

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"It's still in discussion," FSU athletics director Michael Alford said. "We're looking at so many different models out there. But really, at the end of the day, it's what's best for our league. What's best to promote our brand -- especially football and basketball and all of our sports.

"What is the best way to promote ourselves as a conference moving forward?"

The NCAA Division I Council is soon expected to consider a proposal that would remove the requirement of divisions to hold a conference title game. If that measure passes, as many expect, it would pave the way for conferences to determine their own methods for determining championship game matchups.

One major benefit to scrapping the division setup would be not locking so many teams into annual matchups. That would lead to greater scheduling variety, which might be more attractive to fans in attendance as well as the television audience.

It likely wouldn't be a total free-for-all, however, Thamel reported that models under consideration include having two or three permanent conference opponents each year, with the other schools rotating on and off the schedule.

Both scenarios would ensure that each ACC school would get to host every other conference school at least once every four years. In the current model, some ACC schools only square off once every several years.

FSU, for example, played at Pittsburgh in 2013 and then didn't take on the Panthers again until 2020 in Doak Campbell Stadium.

Clemson A.D. Graham Neff confirmed the athletics directors discussed scheduling options in their meeting, but he added that they wouldn't get input from the football coaches until Tuesday.

Neff said the conference likely will come to a decision by Wednesday, but he didn't have an inkling of which way it would go -- or if a change was definitely going to happen.

"This is the time when everybody's here together talking about it," Neff said. "There's just a lot of moving parts to it. It's still fluid."

Due to the ACC's current scheduling model, the FSU football team played Pitt in 2020 for the first time in seven years.
Due to the ACC's current scheduling model, the FSU football team played Pitt in 2020 for the first time in seven years. (Don Juan Moore/Character Lines)

Stay connected with Warchant.com for continuing coverage from the ACC spring meetings at Amelia Island.

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