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What does the new ACC Out-of-Conference Format mean for Miami?

On Monday the Atlantic Coast Conference announced it would retain its 8-game conference schedule. However, in doing so the ACC coupled in a similar out-of-conference mandate as the SEC, requiring each member to schedule one out-of-conference opponent from the five major conferences or Notre Dame.

By Richard C. Paolillo

This past Monday ACC Commissioner John Swofford announced that the league voted to remain at its 8-game conference schedule. Choosing the 8-game schedule over Al Golden's preferred 9-game format. The only new addition being that starting in 2017 each member of the conference will be required to face one power five conference member, or Notre Dame, as an out-of-conference opponent per year.


While other teams around the conference contemplate their future schedules, Miami appears to be relatively unaffected by the change, or at least for the coming years. The Hurricanes have a home-and-home with Nebraska slated for the upcoming season and 2015, as well as at Notre Dame in 2016.

Note: Miami also has home-and-home series with Rutgers ('18 and '19) and Michigan State ('20 and '21)

Talks of the new scheduling format tends to stir excitement and possibilities for a majority of teams around the conference. As for Miami, we're not likely to see any major scheduling changes until a new out-of-conference foe is added/removed in 2017 or beyond.

That's not to say there's no movement behind the scenes, however. It appears a loophole of sorts may allow ACC schools to fill the plus-one void with another ACC member.

A solution such as this could be a permanent fix to the conference's non-primary crossover rival pairings, a result that leads to seeing a non-primary crossover opponent every 11 years. (Full ACC crossover schedule here). As much as we've enjoyed the scarcity of Clemson, this has a possibility of alleviating that problem. So perhaps our future opponent(s) might not be SEC elitists, B1G powerhouses, or the Irish, but a contest with a more familiar adversary.

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