Syracuse officially joining ACC early, creating potential 2013 ACC schedules

It's odd the Big East will not officially vote to terminate Syracuse's membership in the conference until July 1, 2013. Huh? The Carrier Dome have an outstanding credit issue? Guess they want to see those beige burlap sacks with green dollar signs on the table before they can give to go ahead.

Anyways, with Syracuse announcing the going rate for bolting a conference early is a mere $2.5M, it's time to start imagining what 2013 will look like for the Hurricanes. We're assuming here that Pittsburgh can sell a few extra pierogies and Iron City brews to make up the difference above the $5M Big East exit fee they (as of right now) refuse to pay.

Before we get started, lets go over some ground rules the ACC has established in scheduling. John Swofford has already come out stating the ACC will expand to 9 conference games once Pittsburgh and Syracuse both officially join. Syracuse is joining the Atlantic, Pittsburgh will roll into the Coastal with Miami. Each team will play all six divisional opponents, one cross-divisional rival, and two other cross divisional games. In odd numbered years, the Atlantic division will get 5 home games; in even numbered years the home field advantage will go to the Coastal division. Ok, everybody got all that? Too bad, we're moving on!

First, lets talk the ACC in general. Before even Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College were all settled in by 2005, the ACC head honchos decided it was a grand idea to throw out a schedule through 2015. The world never changes according to these guys. Once Pittsburgh officially joins the party, we should fully expect a schedule through 2035, or Miami falls into the ocean, which ever comes first.

Using the aforementioned existing schedule, adding one divisional game for each team, splitting intradivision home and away to three apiece, one rivalry game, and two cross divisional games under the odd numbered (2013) home/away rules, (this sentence is too long!) next year's ACC schedule should look something like this:

I think the ACC will make the executive decision of putting all cross divisional rivalry games into each numbered year the same for an entire division. For example, in 2013 all Coastal teams will play their Atlantic rivals on the road. In 2014, vice versa. It looks to be the only way to accommodate the 5 home/4 away for Atlantic teams next year. The only other changes to the schedule vs. what was already set in stone are the games highlighted in red bold font.

As you can see above, Miami adds a road game at Pittsburgh in conference to the original slate. Throw in the home games to start the year against FAU and Florida (there's still time to back out Jeremy Foley!), the road tilt over Thanksgiving weekend at USF, and there you have it. There are 11 open weeks to play 9 conference games, so the Canes will still get their usual two bye weeks. Hopefully this early schedule does hold so for once Miami is not subjected to the asinine ACC rule of starting conference play so early in the year.