This was something I kind of predicted (I said 22 years ago) when most people thought it would never fly. It starts with the start of ACCN in the 19-20 school year. Though, quietly, the Big Ten, usually the leader in new ideas, announced in October it would start a 20 game schedule next year.
The Big Ten is going to protect 3 rivalries for guaranteed annual home and homes, all in-state rivalries in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Then, over a 6 year period, "regional rivalries" will be played 10 times instead of 12 though they didn't announce who those games would be. I'm guessing OSU/Mich, Wis/Min, Iowa/Neb, and probably a few more.
The ACC hasn't announced specific scheduling decisions but they should probably read this because I've already figured it out. The ONLY protected annual home and homes should be in-state rivalries:
UVa/VT
UNC/Duke
UNC/NCSU
Duke/Wake
NCSU/Wake
Miami/FSU
GT/Clem, Pitt/Syr, BC/Syr are nice but I don't think they are big enough basketball rivalries to truly warrant protection.
So, teams would play 6 teams twice and 8 teams once.
For the NC schools, they'd play in-state schools twice every year, 4 more schools twice, and 8 schools once. This would mean that the NC schools would play home and homes with out of state schools every 3 years.
For Pitt, their games against Duke/UNC would look something like this:
Year 1: Duke 2, @ UNC
Year 2: UNC 2, Duke
Year 3: UNC, @ Duke
Repeat
In a 3 year period, you'd get 2 home games and 2 road games with the 4 NC schools.
Looking ahead to the calendar for that first year, you're going to see a lot more December ACC games.
This is what that year would look like:
Week 1 (Fri, Nov 15-Sun, Nov 17): Cupcakes
Week 2 - Nov 18-24: Cupcakes
Week 3 - Nov 25-Dec 1: Thanksgiving tournaments
Week 4 - Dec 2-4 ACC/B10 Challenge, Dec 7-8 ACC games
Week 5 - Dec 9-15: Finals week with cupcake on the weekend
Week 6 -Dec 16-22: 1 cupcake, 1 ACC game for some teams
Week 7 - Dec 23-29: 1 ACC game on the weekend for some teams
Week 8 - Dec 30 - Jan 5: 2 ACC games
So the December ACC windows would be:
Dec 7/8
Dec 16-19
Dec 21/22
Dec 28/29
Dec 30-Jan 2
ACC teams would have to play in 2-3 of these windows. If I'm ACC/ESPN, I try to have some ACC games in all of these windows, having at least 1 ACC game on most days starting on December 7 to give them better programming on ESPN, ESPN2, and most importantly ACCN
The Big Ten is going to protect 3 rivalries for guaranteed annual home and homes, all in-state rivalries in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Then, over a 6 year period, "regional rivalries" will be played 10 times instead of 12 though they didn't announce who those games would be. I'm guessing OSU/Mich, Wis/Min, Iowa/Neb, and probably a few more.
The ACC hasn't announced specific scheduling decisions but they should probably read this because I've already figured it out. The ONLY protected annual home and homes should be in-state rivalries:
UVa/VT
UNC/Duke
UNC/NCSU
Duke/Wake
NCSU/Wake
Miami/FSU
GT/Clem, Pitt/Syr, BC/Syr are nice but I don't think they are big enough basketball rivalries to truly warrant protection.
So, teams would play 6 teams twice and 8 teams once.
For the NC schools, they'd play in-state schools twice every year, 4 more schools twice, and 8 schools once. This would mean that the NC schools would play home and homes with out of state schools every 3 years.
For Pitt, their games against Duke/UNC would look something like this:
Year 1: Duke 2, @ UNC
Year 2: UNC 2, Duke
Year 3: UNC, @ Duke
Repeat
In a 3 year period, you'd get 2 home games and 2 road games with the 4 NC schools.
Looking ahead to the calendar for that first year, you're going to see a lot more December ACC games.
This is what that year would look like:
Week 1 (Fri, Nov 15-Sun, Nov 17): Cupcakes
Week 2 - Nov 18-24: Cupcakes
Week 3 - Nov 25-Dec 1: Thanksgiving tournaments
Week 4 - Dec 2-4 ACC/B10 Challenge, Dec 7-8 ACC games
Week 5 - Dec 9-15: Finals week with cupcake on the weekend
Week 6 -Dec 16-22: 1 cupcake, 1 ACC game for some teams
Week 7 - Dec 23-29: 1 ACC game on the weekend for some teams
Week 8 - Dec 30 - Jan 5: 2 ACC games
So the December ACC windows would be:
Dec 7/8
Dec 16-19
Dec 21/22
Dec 28/29
Dec 30-Jan 2
ACC teams would have to play in 2-3 of these windows. If I'm ACC/ESPN, I try to have some ACC games in all of these windows, having at least 1 ACC game on most days starting on December 7 to give them better programming on ESPN, ESPN2, and most importantly ACCN
