Earlier this week, CBS Sports’ Jon Solomon wrote a piece in which he argued that Clemson-Florida State is the best annual game of the college football season. I originally thought it was an overreaction, but he makes some valid points.
According to Solomon, the Atlantic Division matchup has vaulted past other elite-level contests—Alabama-LSU, Texas-Oklahoma, Oregon-Stanford, just to name a few—because it has tangible stakes regarding the national college football landscape every single season. None of those other games can say that.
One question arises from this, however: Is the showdown between the Tigers and the Seminoles being wasted? Could the game be even better if more than just a proverbial division crown was on the line?
It’s a fair point, and it’s one that could pop up all across the country this season if conventional wisdom proves true. Clemson and Florida State are arguably the two best teams in the ACC, but since they both reside in the Atlantic Divisions, they cannot match up in the conference title game. One could argue—and I would—that similar circumstances are likely to surround other matchups in other Power 5 leagues.
Based upon expectations, it isn’t farfetched to suggest that the two best teams in the SEC are Alabama and LSU. Ditto for Michigan and Ohio State in the Big Ten. The SEC West calls the Crimson Tide and the (Geaux) Tigers home, while the Big Ten East boasts the Wolverines and Buckeyes. They won’t meet with a spot in the College Football Playoff on the line, but one of them could be knocked out of the running by the other during the season.
The prevalence of this one-sidedness in college football’s major conferences brings realignment into focus. In the SEC and the Big Ten, geography is the determining factor in who goes where, so the results are what they are. There’s not much rearranging that can be done.
In the ACC, however, where teams seem to be divided randomly into two groups, this scenario could be avoidable. In theory, the league could realign whenever it wants without upsetting the apple cart. As teams have come and gone, the makeup of these divisions isn’t a matter of tradition yet anyway, and the powers-that-be could split up its powers on purpose.
While this is doable and probably effective in creating the utmost parity in the ACC for the moment, over the long haul, that doesn’t seem like the way to solve this problem. After all, the disparity between the two sides stems from the league’s desire to engineer a Florida State-Miami title tilt by splitting up the natural rivals. That was a bad move then, and any effort to undo the damage would simply be different, not better.
The only way to manage this disparity would be to realign the league once and for all with a tried and true method: geography. No one seems to suggest realigning the SEC to split up Alabama and LSU, and the same is true for the rest of these Power 5 leagues. Geography makes sense, and we accept disparity as long as the way the teams are organized makes sense.
For this reason, I’d not only keep Clemson and Florida State in the same division, I would completely overhaul the divisions into “ACC North” and “ACC South”. Here is the way I’d divide the league:
North—Boston College, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
South—Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, N.C. State
With geography the ultimate determining factor, any oscillating power structure wouldn’t be a big deal—just like in the SEC, Big Ten, or Pac-12. The Clemson-Florida State game wouldn’t feel like a buzz kill, plus it leaves room for programs in the North to develop rivalries like their brethren in the South.
Of course, we could just eliminate divisions altogether, give each team two or three natural rivals (based primarily on proximity to campus), allow more rotational play within the conference so each teams is exposed to more of the league on a regular basis, and let the top two teams compete for the league championship (or just eliminate it altogether)—but why would we do something that makes sense?
This is college football, after all.