ACC Scheduling Is A Bit Different This Year

We’ve noted previously how seldom ACC teams open the season with powerful opponents. Opening on an opponent’s home court, unless as part of an in-season tournament, is even rarer.

But when a team doesn’t dare a high-profile challenge, doesn’t dare to stray from familiar surroundings until essentially forced to leave the nest, that’s…

Wait a minute.

That was the old ACC. You know, the one with 9, no, 12, no, a mere 15 members, none located west of the Mississippi River. The one with a vestige of fondness for round-robin play, a feature all but eliminated by the imperative to meet each of the other 17 league schools at least once during the regular season. All while preserving an early-season window for meeting non-ACC opponents.

Announcers on the ACC Network now speak facilely of the All Coast Conference, as if that’s what ACC always stood for. (Well, the league presumably does have to approve their employment.)

Whatever caused it, and perhaps simply because it’s the fair thing to do, this season’s ACC schedules are remarkably similar – with one notable exception.

Only three teams play as few as a dozen games by Jan. 1. The other 14 play 13 times over that span. Not surprisingly everybody plays the majority of their pre-conference contests at home. All but Louisville and Duke open their ACC schedules on December 7. The Devils visit the Cardinals on December 8.

Not that long ago, Mike Krzyzewski made sure to pause during January or February to step outside the league to test his team and his assumptions. A longtime home-and-home series with St. John’s was one result. Granted, now that there are more in-conference games it’s logical there’s less opportunity to step outside the ACC. Or if there’s an opportunity it may appear more risky to shoehorn it among league contests.

The only current ACC coach who follows Coach K’s late-season scheduling practice is Jon Scheyer, his former player. The Illinois native has the Blue Devils facing Illinois at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 22, during an otherwise fallow week between games at Virginia and Miami.

Now, about that outlier.

As you’ll note by scanning the chart below, only Georgia Tech opens with as many as seven straight games at home, and ll of its first 14. (Next-best are NC State and Stanford, feasting on five home starts to open the season.) The Yellow Jackets attempt an old-style slate, comfortable and unassuming, full of directional school such as West Georgia, North Florida, and Charleston Southern. In other words, likely victims.

Yellow Jacket coach Damon Stoudamire, a second-year ACC coach whose 14-18 team was among the league’s top 6 in field goal and 3-point defense in 2024, is apparently old-school in more ways than one.