This week was the ACC's winter meetings and today, we got news on future ACC schedules. Whenever Pitt and Syracuse join the ACC, Pitt will be in the Coastal Division with Virginia Tech, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Miami, Duke, and North Carolina while the Orange will be in the Atlantic Division with Boston College, Maryland, NC State, Wake Forest, Clemson, and Florida State.
The football schedule will consist of nine conference games. Each team will play all the other teams in their respective division and three cross-over opponents. For the cross-over opponents, each team will play their primary cross-divisional rival and two rotating opponents. The rotation will be in a six-year cycle, allowing for each school to play every other ACC school at least twice. Pitt's Atlantic Division rival will be Syracuse.
In basketball, the ACC is moving to an 18-game conference schedule with one primary rival. Pitt's primary rival will be the Maryland Terrapins, so we will play the Terps every year twice. The rest of the schedule will consist of 4 teams we will play twice, 4 teams we will play only at home, and 4 teams we will play only away. The schedule will run on a 3 year schedule so we will play everyone other than Maryland 4 times, 2 at home and 2 on the road. The schedule will also run the same way with women's basketball, a variation from the Big East where the men's side plays 18 conference games while the women's side only plays 16 games. All teams will be invited to the ACC Tournament, but the format has yet to be decided.
In regard to other sports, the ACC requires that each team plays other participating ACC schools at least once during the regular season. In addition, the ACC will now sponsor a championship in gymnastics with Pitt joining. The other participating schools will be North Carolina, Maryland, and NC State.
So what does everyone think? I don't think anyone was surprised by the football side, but basketball was a bit surprising. I doubt Maryland fans are happy that they have to give up a potential home game against their biggest rival Duke for a game against Pitt, but I think this was probably the best move the conference could have done.