If people are still interested in continuing the ACC/Big Ten challenge, new matchups are given below. I think we have finally worked the kinks out of this system, and have something good to build on, so thanks for your patience!
This is a home-and-home series over two seasons. For the next two seasons you’ll schedule the same opponent, just switching the home team.
To determine the match-ups, teams from each conference were ranked 1 through 12 based on total regular season conference wins over the past 2 seasons. Any ties were broken by using average RPI over the past 2 seasons. Pairings were then set to be #1 ACC vs. #1 Big Ten, #2 ACC vs. #2 Big Ten, etc.
The team with the highest number of conference wins over the past two seasons was considered the overall #1 seed, and the conference of that team (Illinois/Big Ten) got home games allocated to its odd-seeded teams for this season, and the other conference (ACC) got home games allocated to its even-seeded teams. Of course, that flips next season.
One guiding principle of the challenge is to avoid repeat matchups in too-short a time period. We have established that no two teams can have multiple home-and-homes within a six-season window. To adhere to this, team seedings may need to be shifted from time to time. The degree of seed shifting will be minimized as much as possible when determining which teams to shift.
For this challenge, #3ACC Duke and #4ACC Florida St. were seed-shifted to avoid a repeat of the home-and-home series between Duke and Michigan St. that was played over the past 2 seasons. It was decided to switch Duke and FSU, because it minimized the degree of seed-shifting… those two teams were already tied in the number of ACC conference wins, and Duke was #3 ACC by virtue of the RPI tie-breaker with FSU. All other matchups played out strictly by the numbers, with no repeat matchups from last time.
Without further ado, for those who are interested in continuing the challenge, here are match-ups to be scheduled for next season:
Boston College @ Illinois
Iowa @ Miami-FL
Florida St. @ Michigan St.
Indiana @ Duke
Georgia Tech @ Minnesota
Northwestern @ North Carolina
NC State @ Wisconsin
Michigan @ Wake Forest
Virginia @ Penn St.
Purdue @ Clemson
Maryland @ Notre Dame
Ohio St. @ Virginia Tech
The HOME TEAM is the RESPONSIBLE PARTY for extending the schedule invite. Games should be scheduled for GAME 6 if possible, but if that's already taken, any date will work.
coach_ms and I are sort of serving as co-commissioners for this challenge. For my own part, I will continue to be active in helping arrange matchups, etc. for as long as we can maintain greater than 50% participation. Both of us have signed off on the method of determining matchups, and on this season's match-ups.
Thanks,
Kevin