ACC's new basketball schedule could mean fewer N.C. State-UNC matchups

N.C. State no longer will be guaranteed home-and-away basketball matchups with North Carolina in the new 18-game conference schedule announced this morning by the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The ACC announced a new scheduling format this morning for when Syracuse and Pittsburgh join the league. According to the new schedule, beginning in 2012-13, each school will play every other league team at least once each season, but each school will have only one "primary partner" for guaranteed home-and-away games.

According to the release issued today following the approval of the schedules by the ACC's faculty athletic representatives and athletics directors gathered for the league's winter meetings in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., the primary partners in basketball will be:

Duke and North Carolina
N.C. State and Wake Forest
Boston College and Syracuse
Clemson and Georgia Tech
Florida State and Miami
Maryland and Pitt
Virginia and Virginia Tech

According to the scheduling model's three-year cycle, ACC teams will play every league opponent at least once in basketball, with the primary partners playing home and away annually while the other 12 rotate in groups of four:

One year both home and away
One year at home only
One year away only.

Primary partners will play a total of six times in the schedule's three-year cycle and will play all other conference opponents four times. All 14 teams will compete in the ACC men's and women's basketball tournaments, regardless of the regular-season standings.

"We have been engaged in discussions on the various options for integrating Pitt and Syracuse since early fall," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a league statement. "It's a tremendous tribute to the leadership at our schools that we will be able to seamlessly add Pitt and Syracuse at the appropriate time when they become full playing members."

For football, Syracuse will  join the Atlantic Division and Pitt will join the Coastal Division. With the two Big East schools switching to the ACC, the league will play a nine-game conference schedule, including six division games, one game against a primary crossover partner from the other division and two rotating opponents from the other division. The nine-game ACC schedule also means that some teams will have the advantage of five home games and four road games, while others will have to play five road games and will get only four at home.

The current primary crossover partners for football will remain consistent with Syracuse and Pitt becoming each other's primary crossover partner.

According to the ACC, the six-year cycle for this schedule will allow each team to play each divisional opponent and its primary crossover partner six times (three home and three away) while also playing each rotating crossover opponent two times (one home and one away).

--Lorenzo Perez