FanPost

Curious questions for NCSU fans

Some background first ... one of the VT fans recently made a couple posts on his blog (here and here) regarding a potential "pods" setup for the ACC (at 14 teams). It was a bit odd, to say the least, but also provided some advantages (and possible disadvantages) for various teams in the league. The pod system (which had two 3-team pods and two 4-team pods) paired up one 3-team pod and one 4-team pod to make a division, and then swapped 'em after two years.

One major advantage this system has over the current scheduling is that each conference team would see every other conference team at least twice every four years (at least once home and once away), and teams would only need 8 conference games per year to do it. However, because the divisions switch every two years and the permanent groups (pods) only have 3 or 4 teams each, some annual games would end.

One of these annual games that would end (as was proposed in the plan) was the annual UNC-NCSU game. And because of that (and other things), I'm curious about a few things as seen from the perspective of Wolfpack fans ...

1. How much do you care about playing UNC each year? (I'm sure there's plenty of hate; I'm a Maryland fan and I've got enough so I'm sure you have more than me.) Is it a rivalry that must be maintained annually at all costs, or would having it only twice every four years be enough?

2. How much of a priority is it to have road games within the state of North Carolina?

3. How much (if any) do you care about having a NCSU-Maryland game every year?

I thought that one of the the proposed pod setups could potentially benefit NCSU by strengthening its presence further south. The Pack would have annual games against Clemson and Georgia Tech, and would play against Wake Forest, Florida State and Miami two out of every three years. UNC would be in a pod with UVA, VT and Duke, and would have more of a presence up north than it would down south.

Thoughts?