Could Notre Dame play an ACC soccer calendar in 2020 and lead ACC to add another rival in the conference for the Miami Hurricanes?
Notre Dame currently plays at least five ACC opponents per season. The Fighting Irish were slated to play six ACC opponents before the 2020 season turned into chaos with Big 10 and Pac 12’s decisions to go to a conference-wide schedule. The Miami Hurricanes could play Notre Dame in 2020.
The ACC is expected to announce the same at the end of the month that they could go to a conference schedule in 2020 or play eight or 10 conference games plus a non-conference game against a Big XII or SEC school.
Outgoing ACC Commissioner John Swofford said ACC will work with Notre Dame to allow them to be part of a conference schedule in 2020. The biggest questions remain whether games against Notre Dame will count as conference games and whether the Fighting Irish would be eligible to compete in the ACC Championship game.
The biggest long-term question is whether Notre Dame would ever join the conference permanently for soccer. If they did, ACC would probably have to add a team 16. The programming and divisions would be interesting. The ACC could have eight teams per division with each playing a round robin and two games between divisions.
That would increase the ACC conference schedule from eight to nine games per season. If Notre Dame decides to join the ACC at some point, the biggest question would be who would the conference go to for the 16th team. Five candidates seem to excel. Connecticut, Memphis, Temple, West Virginia and Cincinnati.
Divisional alignments will likely depend on which of the five schools joins the Fighting Irish in a 16-team ACC with the potential for geographic realignment. UConn and Temple would have rivals similar to Notre Dame as the Northern teams. West Virginia and Cincinnati are more geographically ambiguous.
