Trout
I miss Wolfchat
Posted 6 months ago
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Like him or not, IMO, Barry Jacobs is the authoritative voice in the media on ACC basketball. He discusses a topic that I have a hard time understanding, and that is scheduling in the new non-round robin ACC.
But balance has been further eroded by front-loading competition, finishing five home-and-home series by the end of January and half by Feb. 10, when Duke and North Carolina meet for the first time. (Perhaps this is an efficiency measure, making it easy to recycle scouting reports.)Unfortunately too many series will be completed before most teams’ disparate parts coalesce or unravel. Highlighting the potential disservice, a single team swept each of the three series already done for the year: Boston College over Miami, Duke over Clemson, and Florida State over Georgia Tech.
At the other end of this scheduling spectrum, so-called playing partners Maryland and Duke don’t even launch their home-and-home series until Feb. 13, three weeks before the regular season ends. Clemson and FSU start their two-game series on Feb. 10, as do Maryland and Virginia, N.C. State and Virginia Tech.
The other thing he doesnt discuss, but is somewhat related, is why can the ACC protect the season ending Duke vs UNC rivalry, but cannot protect other traditional ACC year end rivalries. We end the season against Boston College this year. Yippee skip! Wow, what a thrilling end of year game......
We used to end every season against Wake Forest. Why cant the ACC protect that rivalry? In the "old" ACC, this was the final Saturday lineup:
Duke/UNC
State/Wake
Clemson/GT
UVA/Maryland
Why cant those be maintained. Have VT play BC and Miami play FSU. Or have VT play UVA and Maryland play BC.
packattack95
Member
Posted 6 months ago
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Also, it seems like it's been years since this has been scheduled, but what happened to the traditional Super Bowl Sunday game between State and Maryland?
LKNpackfan
Member
Posted 6 months ago
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Solid points. I really can't think of any mitigating reasons for this (aptly labeled) disservice, other than protectionism. But a non-profit proping up its most profitable brands is black-helicopter, right?
Trout
I miss Wolfchat
Posted 6 months ago
#
I dont think its black helicopter. I'm fine with Duke and UNC being the end of year game. I'm just asking why the other ACC teams cant have traditional end of year games as well. Why is that so hard.
This makes the most sense:
Duke/UNC
State/Wake
GT/Clemson
VT/UVA
MD/BC
FSU/Miami
NCStatePride
Member
Posted 6 months ago
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^Because those are all profitable games for the ACC to be televised and it is unlikely they would get the most bang for their buck if all those match-up occured in the same weekend.
Money PWNs Tradition.
ThomYorkepack
Member
Posted 6 months ago
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One day in my dream world, Barry Jacobs resumes writing the "Fan's Guide to ACC Basketball".
Thanks so much for posting this, Trout. These are the kinds of finds that we need just a little more of here on the boards.
GApack04
Member
Posted 6 months ago
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Great find, I think scheduling in every sport is very underrated. IMO, one of the reasons the NFL is so successful is the way they do scheduling. They tend to give bad teams easier schedules for the following season, which in turn gives those bad teams an opportunity for a winning season. Every season in the NFL you will have a few teams come out of nowhere to have a good season and I think scheduling plays a role in that.
Expansion can't be blamed for the conference's inability to execute common sense.
GoldenChain
Member
Posted 6 months ago
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One thing expansion has done is given all teams uneven series.
And I do think that what 2009 says about money is the overriding factor.
I imagine that the boys at the conference office sit down with the various networks and allow them to cherry pick. Certainly as far as moving games between Saturday and Sunday and Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. And that can have a huge impact....and for the big networks, probably more than that.
In the old days it seemed that the teams had played exactly half the teams 'at the turn', then played them again during February. Probably gave a greated representation of where you stood in the league.
CylonWolf
Member
Posted 6 months ago
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^Pre expansion, a team played the other eight teams, and then for the second half of the season, played the other teams in exactly the same order, but at the opposite venue (ie, if you started the season @Virginia, Clemson, Florida State, @Georgia Tech, then games 9-12 would be Virginia, @Clemson, @FSU, Georgia Tech).
I can see why they would want to spread out their big rivalries...at the same time, theres no reason why State-Wake Forest isnt on the last weekend (Raycom has our game against BC, and they would have assuredly carried State-WFU if it was then). On top of that, our game against WFU was untelevised last year! The whole thing just reeks of this being a 2-team league, and every other game is basically just a pregame show to that meeting.
baxter
Member
Posted 6 months ago
#
A good point about the NFL scheduling, but I dont know if the ACC would like to see its bottom feeders rise up and take a spot from one of the perennial powers just to get its face smacked in the ncaa. The ACC always wants to put its best foot forward in the tourney and in the ratings. I can't blame them, can you? Were starting (may already be) to not be THE basketball conference anymore, and I think they are trying to ride the tradition as far as it can in the money department. Now I bet if we start finishing in the top 5 or 6 of the ACC that WFU matchup might mysteriously pop up again.
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