https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34161354/acc-drop-divisions-format-permanent-rivalries-starting-2023

Was talked about somewhere on BI a month or two ago, but the ACC just implemented the elimination of divisions and introduction of 3 permanent rivals for each school. Due to having 14 teams, they can't do 4 team regional pods like the p12 could.

Something like this really has to happen in the p12 with the elimination of divisions. California, Northwest, and Mountain pod. For Cal, there would be a reduction in games vs UW and Oregon, while maintaining the CA games that have been played yearly since the 1920's.

I'm not sure the rotation would work with an 8-game conference schedule, but would work easily with 9 games - 3 rival games and 3 of 4 from each of the other two pods.

I'm not a fan of an 8 game schedule with a 9th game dictated by the alliance conferences (ACC/BT) as Cal would be stuck playing a lot more undesirable teams. If they are scheduling for TV rating, usc and Oregon are going to play the Clemsons, Michigans and Ohio States, while Cal would be playing the Wake Forests and Rutgers of the world.

ColoradoBear said:

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https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34161354/acc-drop-divisions-format-permanent-rivalries-starting-2023

Was talked about somewhere on BI a month or two ago, but the ACC just implemented the elimination of divisions and introduction of 3 permanent rivals for each school. Due to having 14 teams, they can't do 4 team regional pods like the p12 could.

Something like this really has to happen in the p12 with the elimination of divisions. California, Northwest, and Mountain pod. For Cal, there would be a reduction in games vs UW and Oregon, while maintaining the CA games that have been played yearly since the 1920's.

I'm not sure the rotation would work with an 8-game conference schedule, but would work easily with 9 games - 3 rival games and 3 of 4 from each of the other two pods.

I'm not a fan of an 8 game schedule with a 9th game dictated by the alliance conferences (ACC/BT) as Cal would be stuck playing a lot more undesirable teams. If they are scheduling for TV rating, usc and Oregon are going to play the Clemsons, Michigans and Ohio States, while Cal would be playing the Wake Forests and Rutgers of the world.

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But, but, but, if we had 8/yr, we could sched a patsy for the third to last game of the season. OOC.

Rushinbear said:

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ColoradoBear said:

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https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34161354/acc-drop-divisions-format-permanent-rivalries-starting-2023

Was talked about somewhere on BI a month or two ago, but the ACC just implemented the elimination of divisions and introduction of 3 permanent rivals for each school. Due to having 14 teams, they can't do 4 team regional pods like the p12 could.

Something like this really has to happen in the p12 with the elimination of divisions. California, Northwest, and Mountain pod. For Cal, there would be a reduction in games vs UW and Oregon, while maintaining the CA games that have been played yearly since the 1920's.

I'm not sure the rotation would work with an 8-game conference schedule, but would work easily with 9 games - 3 rival games and 3 of 4 from each of the other two pods.

I'm not a fan of an 8 game schedule with a 9th game dictated by the alliance conferences (ACC/BT) as Cal would be stuck playing a lot more undesirable teams. If they are scheduling for TV rating, usc and Oregon are going to play the Clemsons, Michigans and Ohio States, while Cal would be playing the Wake Forests and Rutgers of the world.

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But, but, but, if we had 8/yr, we could sched a patsy for the third to last game of the season. OOC.

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Only helps if Cal ponies up the $$$ to buy another home game and not do home and home series with non p5 teams.

ColoradoBear said:

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https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34161354/acc-drop-divisions-format-permanent-rivalries-starting-2023

Was talked about somewhere on BI a month or two ago, but the ACC just implemented the elimination of divisions and introduction of 3 permanent rivals for each school. Due to having 14 teams, they can't do 4 team regional pods like the p12 could.

Something like this really has to happen in the p12 with the elimination of divisions. California, Northwest, and Mountain pod. For Cal, there would be a reduction in games vs UW and Oregon, while maintaining the CA games that have been played yearly since the 1920's.

I'm not sure the rotation would work with an 8-game conference schedule, but would work easily with 9 games - 3 rival games and 3 of 4 from each of the other two pods.

I'm not a fan of an 8 game schedule with a 9th game dictated by the alliance conferences (ACC/BT) as Cal would be stuck playing a lot more undesirable teams. If they are scheduling for TV rating, usc and Oregon are going to play the Clemsons, Michigans and Ohio States, while Cal would be playing the Wake Forests and Rutgers of the world.

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I agree, the three regional pods makes the most sense to maintain rivalries, road trips, fan interest and $$$.

I also agree that for the same reason, 9 conference games is better than 8 and 3 OOC games is plenty. The only advantage of 8 is there is an increased chance that the conference championship game will not be a repeat of a game already played.

ColoradoBear said:

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I'm not a fan of an 8 game schedule with a 9th game dictated by the alliance conferences (ACC/BT) as Cal would be stuck playing a lot more undesirable teams. If they are scheduling for TV rating, usc and Oregon are going to play the Clemsons, Michigans and Ohio States, while Cal would be playing the Wake Forests and Rutgers of the world.

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There's gonna have to be a flex component with the Alliance or it won't make any sense. The whole point is to max out revenue with guaranteed high ratings games. The only way to make sure that happens is have late-season Alliance slots that can be flexed after the tiers for each conference for the year are established by actual records.

WalterSobchak said:

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ColoradoBear said:

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I'm not a fan of an 8 game schedule with a 9th game dictated by the alliance conferences (ACC/BT) as Cal would be stuck playing a lot more undesirable teams. If they are scheduling for TV rating, usc and Oregon are going to play the Clemsons, Michigans and Ohio States, while Cal would be playing the Wake Forests and Rutgers of the world.

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There's gonna have to be a flex component with the Alliance or it won't make any sense. The whole point is to max out revenue with guaranteed high ratings games. The only way to make sure that happens is have late-season Alliance slots that can be flexed after the tiers for each conference for the year are established by actual records.

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Most likely there won't be any required games with teams in the alleged Alliance, for the reasons that Colorado Bear mentions. It's a non-starter that almost every team would oppose. There's no reason to require Cal to play the likes of Wake or Rutgers; even a game with Fresno would sell more tickets than a game with Wake, Rutgers, et al. And USC wouldn't want to let TV force them to play a game as tough as Ohio State or Michigan every year given that they already play Notre Dame every year.

HearstMining said:

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ColoradoBear said:

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https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34161354/acc-drop-divisions-format-permanent-rivalries-starting-2023

Was talked about somewhere on BI a month or two ago, but the ACC just implemented the elimination of divisions and introduction of 3 permanent rivals for each school. Due to having 14 teams, they can't do 4 team regional pods like the p12 could.

Something like this really has to happen in the p12 with the elimination of divisions. California, Northwest, and Mountain pod. For Cal, there would be a reduction in games vs UW and Oregon, while maintaining the CA games that have been played yearly since the 1920's.

I'm not sure the rotation would work with an 8-game conference schedule, but would work easily with 9 games - 3 rival games and 3 of 4 from each of the other two pods.

I'm not a fan of an 8 game schedule with a 9th game dictated by the alliance conferences (ACC/BT) as Cal would be stuck playing a lot more undesirable teams. If they are scheduling for TV rating, usc and Oregon are going to play the Clemsons, Michigans and Ohio States, while Cal would be playing the Wake Forests and Rutgers of the world.

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You guys understand the nuances of scheduling much more than I do, but I'd much rather see a game against Wake Forest, Rutgers, or Northwestern than some of the OOC teams we've scheduled: Southern Utah, Idaho St, Portland State, or Weber St.

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Who wouldn't? The problem is race to the bottom scheduling does work for bowl eligibility and for some mid level programs to claim success, so it would take a joint effort by essentially all the 5 power conferences to get rid of the FCS body bag games. The Big Ten actually banned them, but they also have to cash to buy 2-3 MAC home games instead.

I bet over half the P5 schools actually lose money on the FCS games but continue to do so to get that guaranteed win.

HearstMining said:

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ColoradoBear said:

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https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34161354/acc-drop-divisions-format-permanent-rivalries-starting-2023

Was talked about somewhere on BI a month or two ago, but the ACC just implemented the elimination of divisions and introduction of 3 permanent rivals for each school. Due to having 14 teams, they can't do 4 team regional pods like the p12 could.

Something like this really has to happen in the p12 with the elimination of divisions. California, Northwest, and Mountain pod. For Cal, there would be a reduction in games vs UW and Oregon, while maintaining the CA games that have been played yearly since the 1920's.

I'm not sure the rotation would work with an 8-game conference schedule, but would work easily with 9 games - 3 rival games and 3 of 4 from each of the other two pods.

I'm not a fan of an 8 game schedule with a 9th game dictated by the alliance conferences (ACC/BT) as Cal would be stuck playing a lot more undesirable teams. If they are scheduling for TV rating, usc and Oregon are going to play the Clemsons, Michigans and Ohio States, while Cal would be playing the Wake Forests and Rutgers of the world.

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You guys understand the nuances of scheduling much more than I do, but I'd much rather see a game against Wake Forest, Rutgers, or Northwestern than some of the OOC teams we've scheduled: Southern Utah, Idaho St, Portland State, or Weber St.

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Agreed. The issue that needs to be confronted is "bowl eligibility." As long as the standard is "6 wins and FCS counts" we are going to see teams like Cal schedule 3 very winnable OOC games including one FCS team every year, hoping for at least 3-6 in conference. The last 4 bowls we went to (under Tedford, Dykes and Wilcox) with 4-5 conference records. Those were seen by our fans as "good" years.

You are so right! And same goes w/our first game this season. I would much prefer playing Rutgers/Wake Forest/Northwestern than UC Davis! I'd certainly be more inspired to go if the competition was at least at those school's level.

Dgoldnbaer said:

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You are so right! And same goes w/our first game this season. I would much prefer playing Rutgers/Wake Forest/Northwestern than UC Davis! I'd certainly be more inspired to go if the competition was at least at those school's level.

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Having said what I did, the absolute worst football I can recall seeing was the first half of the 2018 Cal opener against UNC. Both teams kept going three-and-out and I guess there was a TV time-out after each exchange. I think the first half ran over two hours. We took my younger son and his GF and it was her first time attending a football game. I remember apologizing and telling her that they weren't generally this boring.

HearstMining said:

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Dgoldnbaer said:

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You are so right! And same goes w/our first game this season. I would much prefer playing Rutgers/Wake Forest/Northwestern than UC Davis! I'd certainly be more inspired to go if the competition was at least at those school's level.

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Having said what I did, the absolute worst football I can recall seeing was the first half of the 2018 Cal opener against UNC. Both teams kept going three-and-out and I guess there was a TV time-out after each exchange. I think the first half ran over two hours. We took my younger son and his GF and it was her first time attending a football game. I remember apologizing and telling her that they weren't generally this boring.

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Well that was our 2018 team: great, great defense and terrible, horrible offense, culminating in the notorious Chezit Bowl turnover fest. However, I am told that those that really know football view that as far superior to high scoring shootouts with lots of action.