Another Possibility which no one mentions is just making the divisions fluid. Why do they need to stay consistent year in and out? You can keep the 8 team schedule. Make the rules that you will play every other team in conference at least every third year. Load the divisions based on conference records. Even if you have to makes schedules two years out, it should still keep things interesting. The fans will have the “fun” of trying to figure out which division they are in and who else is in it but hell, we do that anyway.
Each team can keep two teams they want to play every year and preferences for other old rivalries. That way, when Wake or UNX end up in our division, we could pick up a team outside our division that we want to play more (Duke, other old ACC teams). It might seem crazy but I think it would be better than what we have. Maybe there would be a weighting factor so that if your preferences are bottom dwellers, one or two would kick out and you get an opponent that evens up your strength of schedule.
It would add to off season excitement just waiting to find out your division make up for the coming seasons.
The ACC brain trust would have a challenging time building the schedules but it’s just a basic Operations Research problem.
