After two days of meeting in Charlottesville, Va., Atlantic Coast Conference officials announced scheduling plans for the post-expansion ACC, changes that will go into effect during the 2004-05 season. The alterations were designed to accommodate a possible 12-member ACC, though the inclusion of any more schools in the league was not discussed at the meeting.
"It can work for us over the next two years in either scenario," said ACC commissioner John Swofford, who added that a divisional split would only occur if a twelfth school was added, the final decision of which will be made in December.
If divisions are necessary, the alignment would be as follows: Duke, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia Tech and Virginia in one division; Maryland, Clemson, North Carolina State, Wake Forest and Florida State in another. Still, such an issue is currently moot.
"Right now we're dealing with what's real, and what's real is that we're an 11-team league," Swofford said. "I'm not here to talk about the twelfth."
For men's basketball, a 16-game conference schedule--highlighted by a "permanent partners" arrangement--was setup by ACC officials. Every school has two permanent partners--Duke was assigned Maryland and North Carolina--that each team will play twice in every season, therefore maintaining home-and-home rivalries. Duke would play four other schools in a home-and-home scenario in the first year, while the remaining four schools will only be played once. The next year, the quartet will rotate, while the permanent partner home-and-home schedule will remain constant.
"I am pleased that the league has come up with a solution to the basketball scheduling situation," men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement released to the media. "Obviously, it is challenging to be fully equitable in implementing a schedule with 11 teams. I am supportive of any decisions that are made in the best interests of the ACC."
The women's program has a very different scenario, as it has four permanent partners: Maryland, Miami, UNC and Virginia. Duke will play these four teams in a home-and-home series, and therefore will only play the other ACC teams once per season.
But at the crux of the new scheduling plans is football, which has been perhaps the most contestable issue since Miami and Virginia Tech accepted ACC invitations in July. The new schedule forces Wake Forest, North Carolina State, North Carolina and Virginia to play the league's three national football powers, each of which is currently in the Associated Press' top five: No. 2 Miami, No. 4 Virginia Tech and No. 5 Florida State. Duke will have to play only two of the powers home-and-home.
Duke President Nan Keohane said she was filled in on the conclusions of the meeting by athletic director Joe Alleva upon his return from Charlottesville.
"They seem like good solutions for the near-term future; they will be revisited after some experience with them, if needed, [but] apparently they have broad support from our athletic directors and coaches and I'm pleased to have this settled so amicably," Keohane wrote in an e-mail.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.