CHARLOTTE, NC – DECEMBER 2: (Photo by Mike Comer / Getty Images)
The ACC Coastal and Atlantic divisions could be suspended for the 2020 season with an emphasis placed on more regional games. That would create a completely new schedule for the Miami soccer program.
The Miami soccer team may have a completely new schedule for the 2020 season that emphasizes games against teams from its region. ACC’s coastal and Atlantic divisions could be suspended for the 2020 season with the plan to return to normal in 2021. That could create new temporary rivalries.
The probability would appear that the eight southern schools in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida would create a Southern Division at ACC with the Northern schools beginning with Virginia Tech, Northwest at Notre Dame, and East Boston College competing in a Division of the North of the ACC.
Manny Navarro of The Athletic reported this week that the concept of 10 plus one in ACC, Big XII and SEC to preserve the rivalry games between four teams in each conference could be too ambitious due to Covid-19 numbers. Florida and Miami specifically have one of the highest infection rates in the country.
Navarro reported that the ACC is considering the regional concept only for the 2020 season and that it would have priority over the Atlantic and coastal divisions. What’s unclear is whether the concept plus one from each team in the ACC, Big XII, and SEC would still schedule a non-conference game each for the 2020 season.
College Football Deferred: NCAA Board of Governors Decided Today Whether to Cancel Fall Sports Championships and Continue Discussions in August
– Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 24, 2020
ACC presidents will meet on Wednesday and the NCAA Board of Governors will meet on August 4 to discuss how the season and schedule could unfold this season. Part of the problem is that FBS is the only NCAA sports tier without a true governing body or president to make the final decisions.
Miami is currently slated to play Temple, Wagner and Alabama-Birmingham in the non-conference. Those games will be canceled almost permanently by 2020. Miami would have a game against a Big XII or SEC for not being a conference in addition to the eight to 10 games scheduled at the ACC.
If the regional concept is adopted, Miami would play its scheduled games against Coastal Division rivals Duke, Georgia Tech and North Carolina, its annual rivalry game with Florida State, its other 2020 crossover game against Wake Forest and would add Clemson and North Carolina State for the 2020 Season.
