Packer on whether the ACC should move to 9 games
By: Staff Report June 29, 2022

Mark Packer and Wes Durham had plenty to discuss on their show after the Atlantic Coast Conference released the new 3-5-5 schedule plan Tuesday afternoon.

While Durham believes the ACC could move to nine league games if the other conference make that move, Packer feels differently.

One of the reasons Packer feels strongly that the ACC should stay at eight conference games is the relationship with Notre Dame.

“For the ACC’s sake, I think eight conference games gives you the flexibility with your non-conference scheduling because you have to have eight, and I am going to tell you why,” Packer said on Wednesday morning’s show. “Because Notre Dame is still floating. Notre Dame is not a conference member in football, but they have a relationship with the Atlantic Coast Conference where they are going to have on average five games between ACC teams and Notre Dame, which is an important non-conference component.”

When you combine the games with the Irish and the SEC rivalry games for some ACC teams, that doesn’t leave much scheduling flexibility.

“I think when you throw that in, in addition to the ones that you mentioned with the ACC and SEC variety at the end of the season, you have to have No. 1-quality games that your fans care about, and all of those games fall under the same category,” Packer said. “Any ACC team against Notre Dame is a game that you want to see. Any ACC versus SEC game, especially those at the end of the year, are games that you want to see. They are part of your DNA, your fabric. So all of those are critical. So it gives you if you know those boxes are checked and if you happen to be one of those schools that falls in the category that you have Notre Dame and your arch enemy in the SEC at the end of the year, man your flexibility of only having two open dates in terms of non-conference opportunities, it is really is important in how you handle them. Do you go heavy? Do you go light? Is it Texas A&M or do you jump on a top-20 team?  That is difficult, so I think that is why eight has got to be the right number for the league.”