Report: ACC discussing major changes to conference, scheduling at spring meetings

The ACC football landscape could look a lot different in a few years depending on what happens at the league meetings.

Scheduling could be a big topic of conversation at the annual ACC meetings, including eliminating divisions as early as 2023, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. That’s just one piece of the puzzle, though, as Thamel explained in a Twitter thread.

One model being discussed is each football program having three permanent opponents – but not necessarily pods of 3 — and the other five programs rotating on and off the schedule every other year.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) May 9, 2022

“One model being discussed is each football program having three permanent opponents — but not necessarily pods of 3 — and the other five programs rotating on and off the schedule every other year,” Thamel wrote. “There’s also a potential model with 2 permanent opponents and 6 teams rotating on and off, in the same manner.

“These models would allow every ACC team to host every other ACC team every four years. This would bring more variety to the schedule.”

The ACC currently has two seven-team divisions: the Atlantic and the Coastal. That model is for football, men’s soccer and baseball, though, and Notre Dame won’t be impacted in football because it’s an independent. Syracuse doesn’t have a baseball team and wouldn’t have to deal with any changes in that regard, either.

The league moved to divisional play in football in 2005 and the two winners compete in the ACC championship game each year. This past year, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest squared off in the game at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Panthers came out on top 45-21 in what proved to be Kenny Pickett’s last game with Pitt.

Pickett opted out of the Panthers’ bowl game against Michigan State, but it worked out well for him. He’s not going far, either. The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft last month — becoming the one quarterback to go in the first round this year.