Hmmm, interesting implications to this...ACC gives its football teams new guidance on scheduling non-Power 5 road games: Don’t
Coming off a year in which the ACC played 10 road games at non-Power 5 opponents — and lost three of them — schools received new guidance from the league office: Don’t.
While the nonconference portions of the schedules to be released Monday are often set years if not decades in advance, the ACC has asked schools to schedule most, if not all, of their future nonconference road games at either Power 5 teams or Army.
That sounds simple enough, except it can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million to buy a home game against even a low-level FBS team, and playing home-and-homes or two-for-ones are often the best balance between finances and, to be blunt, wins.
Throw in geographic considerations where going on the road makes sense for recruiting reasons or otherwise — Appalachian State and Charlotte and East Carolina for the North Carolina schools, Liberty and Old Dominion for the Virginia schools — and it’s a tough nut to crack.
“It’s potentially more expensive,” North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said, “but theoretically you can build more competitive, better schedules.”
That’s why ACC commissioner Jim Phillips made that ask, although creating better inventory for the ACC Network and the league’s partners at ESPN was certainly a consideration, as well.
“Those end up being individual campus decisions, but we have pushed hard about making sure when we have opportunities to play really good programs and teams in the nonconference, we need to do that,” Phillips said. “We just do. When you look at some of our better teams over the last three or four years, in particular a school like Clemson, that’s what they’ve done. And you have to do that.
“It doesn’t mean all 12 of your games have to be at that level, but when you have the opportunity to play home games or home-and-homes, they need to be against the very best competition you can.”
