ACC Basketball Rivalries – Out With the Old?

When Boston College joined the ACC in 2005, this put the conference at 12 members. With a 16-game basketball schedule, it obviously was not possible for each team to play everyone else twice. So a rotational schedule was implemented, which was voted on in 3-year increments. The previous rotation ended last season, and the new teams (Pitt, Syracuse and Notre Dame) won't be joining for another season. In the interim, the ACC sat down with ESPN and created this year's stopgap schedule, which was not based on the rotational schedule.

With the rotational schedule each school was assigned two 'Primary Partners' which they would play a home and home with every season. These teams were considered the other's rivals.

So with the new teams entering the conference, the Primary Partners portion of the schedule had to be redesigned. So what happened?

Here's the list, with changes.

Boston College: Miami and Virginia Tech Notre Dame and Syracuse

Clemson: Georgia Tech and Florida State

Duke: North Carolina and Maryland Wake Forest

Florida State: Miami and Clemson

Georgia Tech: Clemson and Wake Forest Notre Dame

Maryland: Duke Pittsburgh and Virginia

Miami: Boston College Virginia Tech and Florida State

North Carolina: Duke and NC State

NC State: North Carolina and Wake Forest

Virginia: Virginia Tech and Maryland

Virginia Tech: Virginia and Boston College Miami

Wake Forest: Georgia Tech Duke and NC State

And the new teams:

Notre Dame: Boston College and Georgia Tech

Pittsburgh: Maryland and Syracuse

Syracuse: Boston College and Pittsburgh

Boston College, who is the shortest tenured of the current members, gets two new rivals. It does save them from having to make the long trek to Miami every year. And Duke now moves away from Maryland and gets a second in-state rival. North Carolina – of course – doesn't change a thing (let's not get crazy here). And the Big East ties are held together about as well as possible.

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