Let's shake up the divisions and use history as our guide

I've been thinking about ourconference schedule since the ACC released the new format. The addition of Syracuse and the limited cross-division rotation was the latest reminder that the conference needs to reorganize the divisions along old conference ties. We need to have a "Big East" Division and an "Atlantic Coast" Division.

As the conference continues to grow, we continue to lose identity and history. We are now just a collection of east coast schools that are too good for the Big East and or haven't been poached by the SEC or Big Ten. Pockets of our fanbases are unsatisfied and say they miss the good old days. If you realign, you help reform that history yet still get the financial and voting strength that the larger conference provides.

The move would be fairly clean and still keep things balanced with regard to football strength and potential. Look at this potential mix:

East
Boston College
Louisville
Miami
Pitt
Syracuse
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest

Atlantic
Duke
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Florida State
North Carolina
NC State
Virginia

Obviously the one problem is that there are only six teams with historical ties to the Big East. One ACC school would have to play elsewhere. In this scenario I moved Wake since it helps balance things based on football history and size of school. Other candidates to play in the east could be Georgia Tech and Florida State (since both joined the ACC in modern times) or Virginia (so they could be geographically aligned with Virginia Tech).

But the big thing this does is placate the old school fans in North Carolina who still feel the newbies ruined the conference. I also think it would help the "east" teams with fan and media interest. BC, Syracuse, Pitt and Miami should be playing each other on a regular basis.

The politics of this are tricky and I doubt anyone is going to push a proposal like this forward. It is too bad since a common sense move like this could strengthen the conference short-term and long-term.

Notre Dame to ACC as non-football member

ESPN reported that Notre Dame will join the ACC as a non-football member. Rumblings started this morning but there has been plenty of speculation for months. According to ESPN the Irish will commit to playing five ACC teams annually in football. Given that Pitt and BC are regular opponents, adding three more ACC teams is not much of a hardship on Notre Dame. I assume the deal also allows Notre Dame to keep its NBC deal for football.

The good news
In the changing landscape of college football this gives the ACC one of the few remaining chess pieces. I assume there will be some sort of bowl partnership in the relationship. While the politics of the new playoff are still to be determined, you would have to imagine Notre Dame's vote and interests will now be more closely aligned with the ACC. Adding the Irish for also is probably enough of a trigger to reopen our ESPN deal again to get some more money.

The bad news
It is partial membership with no rumored transition date to full membership. We only need to look back to our Big East days to know that the Irish will do everything in their power to keep their football independence. The other issue is this probably means the ACC will add a 16th team to balance things out. That means were are probably back in a conference with Rutgers or UConn again.