The ACC might have the ideal new scheduling format

According to ESPN reporting, the ACC is planning to alter their scheduling format to require at least 10 power conference games on each ACC team's schedule. The debate centers on whether to play eight or nine conference games.

"Athletic directors are scheduled to meet Monday in Charlotte to discuss the details of what will either be a move to a nine-game conference slate with one additional Power 4 game required out of conference or an 8+2 model that will provide more flexibility to schools that already have an annual nonconference rival," ESPN wrote on Thursday.

The nine-game conference slate would fall right in line with the SEC's recent move from eight to nine, and the Big Ten, who already plays nine conference games per year. But the 8+2 model seems far more beneficial for the sport as a whole.

College football fans will spend much of the next four months debating resumes and schedules while pitting conferences against each other as we march toward the eventual CFP Selection Show that will surely leave several fanbases madder than a wet hornet. The way to minimize these arguments is to simply pit the power conference teams against each other, in non-conference matchups, as much as possible. The 8+2 model does just that.

How many people cried that Indiana was overrated thanks to an easy schedule, or that SMU didn't belong in the Playoff because the ACC is too weak? We had three SEC teams barely miss the cut with almost no margin separating them.

If all power conferences adopted an 8+2 model, that's dozens more out-of-conference matchups between power programs. We want more Texas-Ohio State and less Missouri-Kentucky. With eight games still in conference, we're going to figure out who the best teams in each league are. But by scheduling an extra game (or two!) out of conference against power competition, the selection committee will have more crossover games to reference, more substantial data points, to help perfect the field rather than leaning on their own mystical perception of the conferences.

With the SEC adding a ninth conference game and the Big Ten staying there, too, there are simply less opportunities to face other power conference teams. South Carolina will play Clemson annually plus their nine SEC teams. This year, they faced Virginia Tech out of conference, but with a ninth SEC game coming aboard next season, the likelihood of those contests simply decreases. That's math.

The Big Ten made a huge deal about the SEC moving to nine conference games, and the SEC made the move, but it's actually counterproductive to measuring the full scope of college football across the country. Even though conferences are larger and more widespread than ever, the teams still enter an echo chamber in conference play where it's hard to measure yourself against a bunch of other teams you, nor your league opponents, haven't played against.

Just a thought. But the ACC's 8+2 model seems to make a ton of sense, providing more than enough conference games while forcing the conference to go out and test itself against other top programs. That's what we should want in college football.