By Jacob Shoor
SouthernPigskin.com

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It appears that the ACC is once again considering moving to a nine-game conference schedule.

Before Notre Dame jumped into the mix as a partial member of ACC football, the league had agreed to move to a nine-game schedule. With the Irish set to play five ACC teams per year, the ones that play an in-state SEC rival annually naturally objected to the nine-game conference slate. It would mean that in years when they were to face Notre Dame, they would have only one team to schedule.

Louisville is joining that group this coming season, and all four of them may be facing the loss of flexibility in scheduling. Ken Segiura has reported in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that the ACC is once again considering the nine-game season. The reason seems to be that ESPN wants it, and may require it to start an ACC Network. Quite simply, another conference game is going to be of much greater value to a conference network than four out of conference games against the likes of Louisiana Tech, Richmond, Central Michigan, and East Carolina, which was NCSU’s OOC schedule in 2013. NCSU’s OOC schedule for 2014 is even worse: Georgia Southern, Old Dominion, USF, and Presbyterian.

The Big 12 plays a nine-game round robin. The Pac-12 plays a nine-game schedule. The Big Ten returns to a nine-game schedule in 2016. The SEC has given serious consideration to adding another league game. If ESPN wants a nine-game ACC slate for the ACC Network to get off the ground, the ACC will agree.

Adding an extra league game will relieve some of the issues that are behind John Swofford’s desire that the NCAA change its rules on divisional play. But it will not remove them. The ACC would still prefer that it be allowed to schedule as it sees fit for the good of its conference and stage its championship game the way its prefers. After all, the NCAA does not mandate round robin divisional scheduling and seeding if conferences have a basketball tournament.

If the ACC plays a nine-game slate without divisions, each school can have five annual rivals, and then play half of the eight remaining members for two years, followed by the rest for two years. What that will do for the ACC better than the three-five-five scheduling I suggested after Swofford went public about his hope that the NCAA will adopt allow flexibility is make the annual rivalry packages a little more balanced.

Below is my take on the five annual rivals.

BC – Syracuse, Pitt, Wake, VT, Miami

Syracuse – BC, Pitt, NCSU, Miami, Louisville

Pitt – Syracuse, BC,VT, Louisville, Miami

Louisville – NCSU, UVA, Syracuse, Pitt, GT

UVA – VT, UNC, Clemson, Duke, Louisville

VT – UVA, Miami, Duke , BC, Pitt

UNC – Duke, UVA, NCSU, GT, FSU

Duke – UNC, Wake, GT, UVA, VT

NCSU – UNC, Wake, Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse

Wake – NCSU, Duke, BC, FSU, Clemson

Clemson – NCSU, GT, FSU, Wake, UVA

GT – Clemson, Duke, FSU, Louisville, UNC

Florida State – Miami, GT, Clemson, Wake, UNC

Miami – FSU, VT, BC, Syracuse, Pitt