Ooh, variable!
The ACC made it official earlier in the week that it will be trimming the men’s basketball schedule by two games, effective immediately. The schedule will give each team a pair of home-and-homes, one with a primary partner that never changes (Wake Forest, in State’s case), and one with a variable partner that could be different each year.
The variable partner concept is intended to create more quality matchups based on preseason expectations. So if NC State were expected to finish in the top six, say, then the league would schedule a home-and-home with another team expected to finish in that area and cut out a game against a projected bottom-feeder.
That extra flexibility doesn’t exactly solve the ACC’s whole bad-basketball-league problem but should help a little by giving NCAA-caliber teams more quality win opportunities. (It also works as a concession to ESPN for depriving the network of inventory.)
The change means that for the first time, everybody ain’t gonna play everybody. The ACC has correctly ascertained that no one cares about that anymore, given the … *gestures at current league membership*. Sadly, we can’t all not play Boston College, but this at least opens the door to that exciting possibility.