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Clemson football: 3 things the ACC must do outside of expansion

By Andrew Boardwine

Jul 21, 2021; Charlotte, NC, USA; ACC commissioner Jim Phillips speaks to the media during the ACC Kickoff at The Westin Charlotte. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 21, 2021; Charlotte, NC, USA; ACC commissioner Jim Phillips speaks to the media during the ACC Kickoff at The Westin Charlotte. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports /
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Three things the ACC must do outside of expanding and how they affect Clemson football. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips at ACC Football Kickoff. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports /

Clemson football fans have been discussing conference realignment and expansion in-depth over the last couple of weeks following the moves made by the SEC to add Texas and Oklahoma.

As we look ahead to the future of College Football, there are questions surrounding what the sport will look like five years from now and what the future may hold for conferences outside of the ACC.

We’ve talked ad nauseum about moves that the ACC needs to make for expansion and schools that the conference needs to add, but today we’re going to take a little different angle on the topic.

Here’s a look at things the ACC must do regardless of expansion and how it will affect Clemson.

Three things the ACC must do outside of expanding and how they affect Clemson football

1. Do away with divisions

The Atlantic and Coastal Division model is outdated and it’s not beneficial to the conference.

Pittsburgh has been in the ACC for a decade now and it’s now 2021. Did you know this season will be the first time that Clemson football makes the trip to Pittsburgh? That’s why divisions don’t work.

You see the same divisional matchups year-after-year and you end up seeing the same cross-divisional rivals. That only leaves space for one conference game to change each season.

In a world where all that matters is television revenue, having the same teams– when they haven’t created a true rivalry– match up each and every season is not beneficial to the bottom line and it leaves a stale product out there for fans.

It’d be great to see the ACC add a 15th team and go to a 3-pod system, but even if it doesn’t it simply doesn’t make sense to keep the divisions when you could create fresh and potentially more exciting matchups by not placing that divisional restriction on yourself.

By doing this, you also guarantee that the best two teams– regardless of if they played each other already or not– get a shot at the ACC Championship game, rather than having some abysmal Coastal Division team– as we’ve seen in the past– represent their division in the ACC Championship simply because they were the best of a group of losers.

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