The ACC recently released their 2021 ACC football schedule. Notre Dame is running independent again, but there’s plenty to like about the schedule. It wasn’t all great, because there will also be the 5 things I don’t like about the schedule coming up soon.
So here we go.
1) North Carolina at Notre Dame (October 30, 2021)
What a perfect time for North Carolina to be playing Notre Dame. The Heels will most certainly be ranked in the pre-season, and a fairly soft opening schedule should have them no worse 5-2 coming in this game. It’s more likely they are 6-1 or 7-0 and with a bona-fide Heisman candidate in QB Sam Howell, this could one of the biggest OOC games featuring an ACC team not named Clemson in a very long time.
UNC has come a long way under Mack Brown, but they lack a true signature splash win. This could be that chance.
2) Consolidated BYE weeks
11 of the 14 ACC teams’ BYE weeks are October 9-October 23. Only Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Syracuse fall outside of those weeks, and that creates a pretty fair distribution of the BYE weeks during the middle of the season where teams typically need it the most.
Hopefully the ACC can continue to manage the BYE weeks in this way and keep this competitive balance.
3) Louisville vs Ole Miss (September 6, 2021)
You can criticize some things about the ACC’s television agreement’s but the Labor day deal is not one of them. This day is always one the higher rated games of the year, and a showcase game for the conference in prime-time with nothing in competition.
It’s a big opportunity for Louisville and Scott Satterfield to rebound after a lackluster 2020 against the Rebels and Lane Kiffin.
4) Clemson vs Georgia (September 4, 2021)
We’ve said it before and will say it again. Scheduling games like this for Clemson or Georgia will force the loser to run the table to make the playoffs. It’s not great for playoff standings, but it is great for fans. This might be the OOC game of the season, and may be the game of the year across college football. Clemson is the premier program in college football outside of Alabama. The Tigers want to stay there, while Georgia has been trying to get there for 40 years. The Bulldogs always have tremendous talent, but so does Clemson. This is a game circled across the country as Clemson looks to rebound from a second straight blowout playoff loss, while Georgia looks to make their second trip there.
5) Not overscheduling Out of Conference
Let’s face it, in the ACC only Clemson and maybe UNC should playing out of conference games against top 10 teams if they don’t have to. A blowout loss could set the season sideways in a hurry and only hurts the image of the conference. Schedule winnable OOC games, and build up in subsequent seasons That said you still need reasonably good competition, while also avoiding the loseable group of 5 game – just don’t over schedule. There are some examples of that this year in the ACC – Duke/Northwestern, Boston College/Missouri, NC State/Mississippi State, Pittsburgh/Tennessee, Virginia/Illinois and BYU, and Virginia Tech/West Virginia. Decent games that are opportunities for win
Games like UCF/Georgia Tech, Alabama/Duke, and FSU/Boise state that we’ve seen in the past are simply a waste of time.
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