Here we go again. Two weeks into the season, and the ACC is again searching for positives in another dismal out-of-conference start.
ACC teams schedule tough OOC games, and promote that the entire off-season only to flop in the OOC games, the conference member to credibly perform in for a variety of reasons, from exposure, to conference narratives, to actual SOS metrics.
Conference members are 3-9 against P4 opponents and Notre Dame.
The poor start simply proves the ACC needs to trash the discussion 9 + 1 schedule format and go to the 8 conference games and 2 P4 / Notre Dame format.
Individual team results can be separated from the rest of the conference in most years – save the playoff selection malpractice against Florida State in 2023.
Miami and Florida State have top 10 out-of-conference wins over Notre Dame and Alabama. Those wins will resonate nationally no matter how the rest of the conference performs.
With South Florida’s rise, Miami gets its second top 20 of September, and they still have Florida to play. The Canes will have plenty of potential OOC resume-building wins. Florida State still plays Florida at the end of the year. They both play each other as well as Miami and Florida State.
Georgia Tech, for its part, won at Colorado and got tremendous exposure on that Friday night on ESPN. Georgia Tech gets Georgia at the end of the year. That’s certainly a better resume than what Indiana brought to the table last year, even if it ends up a split. Speaking of Indiana which backed out of playing Louisville and Virginia, give them the chance to schedule a comparable opponent.
Even Clemson – certainly hasn’t looked like a playoff team by any stretch, but to start a season with LSU and end a season at South Carolina, they can still work themselves back into the discussion. They already have a multi-year schedule agreement with Notre Dame, and the yearly game with South Carolina.
ACC football powers need the flexibility to upgrade their schedules where needed, and if one of the OOC games is an ACC on ACC team matchup, then they can schedule who they want. Wouldn’t it be nice if Miami and Clemson had a game scheduled, or Georgia Tech and Florida State, maybe Miami played each other? For that matter, Georgia Tech beat both FSU and Miami in competitive, solidly rated games. Florida State and Georgia Tech went to Ireland, but in most years, that’s an easy travel game for those fan bases.
Virginia and NC State already did this, so why not?
Frankly, if the ACC ends up with a 9 + 1 format, it would be a mistake that doesn’t benefit the football brands of the ACC.
