Somebody on the Pitt Scout board posted this proposal. It isn't mine but it is maybe the best solution that I have seen yet?
I think everyone can agree that if ND would make a commitment to the ACC football conference, the ACC would be as stable as any conference for years to come. The Notre Dame AD has stated in the past how much of an importance they place on being a player in eastern markets. But they also covet their independence that allows them to play a national schedule. With a little compromise, I think there is an opportunity for for a mutually beneficial for ND to join and stabilize the ACC.
This would entail the ACC going to 16 teams immediately. The critical add would be Navy. The other logical add would be Louisville, in my opinion but feel free to substitute UConn if that floats your boat. At 16 teams, the ACC would need to go to a setup of 4 pods each with 4 teams. One of those pods would consist of ND and traditionally opponents Navy, Pitt and Boston College. I could see the pods playing out something like this:
Pod A-----
ND
Pitt
BC
Navy
Pod B-----
Virginia
VT
Ville
Cuse
Pod C-----
NC
NCSt
Duke
Wake
Pod D-----
GT
Clemson
FSU
Miami
Scheduling in this setup would mean that all teams in each respective pod would play EVERY year keeping important rivalries. Likewise, each year every pod would play every team from some other pod. The "other pod" would be different each year rotating every 3 years. This gives each team 7 conference games. These yearly pod pairings would create 2 divisions and the records for these 7 conference games within each division would determine the conference championship representatives. This is where ND would have to give a little in that they would have to commit to ONE extra ACC conference game. It is only one because they have already agreed to play 5 ACC games and by adding a team that ND is committed to playing EVERY year in Navy, that is now a conference game which brings you to 6 ACC games per year.
-You place ND in a pod with teams that are traditional rivals as to not disrupt their typical schedule. ND plays those teams for a reason and the ACC is letting them to continue that on a regular basis. This is a nice benefit for Pitt, BC and Navy who would all be newcomers to the ACC so it may tick some other schools off but I'd argue that they aren't necessarily any worse off in that they'd get their guaranteed game against ND every 3 years along with the chance to play them in the championship game.
-The ACC could guarantee Notre Dame one of their "away" conference games would be played in New York City. Each ACC team would have to be willing to sacrifice a home game against ND once every so many years. It could be spread apart enough to be insignificant to the ACC team plus the ACC could use this as a "spotlight" type game. Perhaps it is always the first ACC conference game of the season. If the ACC teams aren't in favor of giving up home games, perhaps Pitt, ND and Navy could sacrifice home games to play in NYC. See this article about the potential significance of ND being guaranteed to play a game in NYC every year.
http://articles.nydailynews.co...ball-notre-dame
I do think this move by the Big 10 was a direct shot at Notre Dame. But Notre Dame wanting to be an Independent is tied to one thing only. That is their exclusive contract with NBC where they don't have to share with anyone. The only way this changes is when the new Super Conference Model comes around and no special exceptions are made for independents. One could argue that the Big 10 just burned its last bridge with ND with this latest move. There was an interesting proposal today on local talk radio about this 4 pod system previously mentioned on this thread. It goes like this:
1. ND joins as a full time member and is placed in one of the 4 pods.
2. POD A plays POD B two years in a row home and away. The winner of that "division" goes to the championship game.
3. POD C plays POD D two years in a row home and away. The winner of that "division" goes to the championship game.
4. After those two years are up you pair POD A with POD C and POD B with POD D and repeat the process. Essentially you keep the notion of divisional play; but the divisions change every two years to allow teams across the entire league to play each other more often.
5. Here is the big one. You play 7 regular season conference games a year instead of 8 games. That gives ND and everyone else 5 OOC games to schedule as they see fit.
6. Schools would be allowed to schedule ACC teams from outside their current "division" as an out of conference game. That way old rivalries can be preserved when schools like NC State and UNC are not in the same "division" for a two year span.
#6 is important because it will allow you to setup PODs how ever you feel like. The schools can preserve the rivalries if they so chose when their PODs are not paired together.
I thought this was nuts at first. But the POD system does at least allow you the opportunity to play everyone in league twice over a four year span. That is much better than the current divisional setup we have now.
Still having trouble with just 7 regular season games as this radio host proposed. But it is thinking outside of the box .
ND would have Pitt, Navy and BC on their schedule yearly which all three are traditional opponents for ND. And then they would still have 5 (USC, Purdue, Stanford, Michigan State and one other game) non-conference games to schedule. That gives them at least 7 opponents the same as they played this year. The other teams from this year's schedule that would be lost are Michigan (pretty traditional rival), Oklahoma, BYU, Wake Forest (ACC) and Miami (ACC) of which the last four are non-traditional rivals. You can scratch Wake Forest and Miami because Notre Dame would be playing 7 games against the ACC. That leaves one spot per year to play a non-traditional opponent like Oklahoma, BYU or to add Michigan back in if they desire. Also, you may find that the Big 10 schools start to pull away from ND and perhaps drop them from their schedule. It seems to me the Big 10 as a whole is upset with the ND/ACC tie-in. I would not be surprised to see the schools reach an "agreement" not to schedule ND any longer.
Overall it sounds like a pretty good way to at least start communications and compromises. Seems like it would definitely stabilize the league and I imagine at the same time the ACC (now fully with ND) could go back to ESPN and ask for more money.