Those looking for the ACC to significantly revamp its divisional setup ahead of the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the conference will be sorely disappointed.
The ACC announced Friday that Pittsburgh will be added to its Coastal Division while Syracuse will play in the Atlantic Division... and that’s it. No other members will be moving to different divisions as some had projected.
“We have been engaged in discussions on the various options for integrating Pitt and Syracuse since early fall,” said ACC commissioner John Swofford in a statement. “It’s a tremendous tribute to the leadership at our schools that we will be able to seamlessly add Pitt and Syracuse at the appropriate time when they become full playing members.
Thus, the divisions will look as follows:
ATLANTIC
Boston College
Clemson
Florida State
Maryland
North Carolina State
Syracuse
Wake Forest
COASTAL
Duke
Georgia Tech
Miami
North Carolina
Pittsburgh
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Additionally, the ACC confirmed in its press release that the conference will go to a nine-game schedule for football upon the arrival of the two current Big East members, which is expected to happen no later than the 2014 season.
The release states that "[t]he format will consist of each team playing all six in its division each year, plus its primary crossover partner each year and two rotating opponents from the opposite division. This six-year cycle allows each team to play each divisional opponent and its primary crossover partner six times (three home and three away) while also playing each rotating crossover opponent two times (one home and one away).”
Moving to a nine-game league schedule could have one very big downside as well -- the odds of the continuation of the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia, not good to begin with, have decreased immensely.