Welcome, to the new ACC -- the "football" ACC. After 52 years of additions, subtractions and adjustments since its conception in May 1953, the Atlantic Coast Conference has seemingly found that "just right" mix of 12 institutions, while forgoing its basketball roots to pursue a football future.
By relieving the Big East of its three flagship members beginning in the summer of 2003, the ACC in 2005 now joins the nation's elite mega-conferences as an emerging football giant.
The new-look ACC stretches nearly the length of the U.S.'s Atlantic seaboard, over 1,500 miles from the crystal clear waters of Miami Beach, north to the lobster-filled harbors of Boston. Two years ago, the ACC was a regional conference of nine primarily southern schools. Last year it was an 11-school puzzle missing its final piece. Now, in Boston College, that final piece is in place, forming a sprawling and more diverse 12-institution conference.
With an even dozen schools, the ACC is able to expand into a two-division format with six teams apiece. The Atlantic Division consists of Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Maryland, N.C. State and Wake Forest. Meanwhile, the Coastal Division includes Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Each year, each team will play the five other teams in its division while playing three from the opposing division, one appointed "permanent rival" school that remains unchanged year to year and two rotating schools that change every two years. Maryland is Virginia's "permanent rival" in the Atlantic Division.
Having two divisions also allows the conference to host a season-ending conference championship game, similar to those held by the SEC and Big XII conferences. This year, the ACC's inaugural championship game will be held in Jacksonville, Fla. December 3. The winner of the conference championship game will advance to a BCS bowl game.
"I really like [the divisions]," Georgia Tech running back P.J. Daniels said. "Sometimes you can't play a team that you want to play and want a chance to beat. But [now] you never know
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