Eliminating Divisions in ACC Football Could Be Coming Soon
On Wednesday morning Andrea Adelson reported that ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is "reimagining" the football set up in the conference. She talks about the new commissioners first year, and his decision to reject playoff expansion at this point. Also per her report, Adelson says that one major element Phillips is looking at is applying for the ACC to no longer have divisions in college football.
In order to do this, the NCAA has to approve such a measure, but this is also something other Power 5 divisions, mainly the Big Ten, have discussed as well. Adelson wrote, "The ACC has not done that just yet, but the conversations this week could push the league much closer to making that a reality."
Getting rid of the divisions is absolutely the right call. The ACC got to see a trial run of what this could look like in 2020, when due to COVID-19 the conference became just 14 teams, division-less, with the top two teams earning spots in the ACC Championship game.
Jim Phillips- ACC Commissioner
This seemingly worked for the conference for a number of reasons. First of all, teams got to schedule multiple teams that typically they would play years apart. For instance Boston College had a schedule that included Coastal teams like Duke, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Pitt, and Virginia. Instead of waiting almost a decade (Boston College hasn't hosted UVA since 2010), for these teams to play at a home field, they could in theory do it every few years. Mixing up the schedule allows for fresher opponents, instead of the current model that just rotates home and aways, along with a cross divisional rival (which they hopefully won't mandate), and another cross divisional team.
Additionally from a conference strength point of view, we have seen the ACC work well without divisions. This experiment worked well in '20. Instead of shoehorning a less deserving team into the championship game, the division-less system allowed the ACC have a rematch of one of the best games of the year, Clemson and Notre Dame. Not only was this fodder for great television ratings, but because of the outcome of the game it allowed two ACC teams to make the four team playoff.
2020 ACC Championship Game
Of course this is all still in the early stages, but Adelson's report makes it sound for the first time that there could be some teeth to these discussions. For the conference, removing divisions would be advantageous for all involved and would put the ACC back in good footing at the college football playoff table.
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