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Earlier today, the ACC announced it was pushing back all athletic competition until at least Sept. 1. The Big Ten took that a step further by announcing that—if fall sports are able to be played—it will move to conference-only schedules. The ACC is now expected to follow suit.
ACC football also expected to play conference-only games, sources told @Stadium. Last month, ACC commish John Swofford told @Stadium if Power 5 schools played conference-only schedules that ACC would assist Notre Dame with as many games as it needed
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 9, 2020
The rest of the power-conferences shouldn’t be long in making similar announcements. It’s playing out a lot like that fateful Thursday in March when leagues canceled their basketball tournaments one after another.
It really hits home to think that traditional inter-conference rivalry games like Florida State-Florida, South Carolina-Clemson, and Georgia Tech-UGA just went out the window. Virginia Tech and Miami also had Big Ten teams on their schedules. And NC State, of course, won’t be hosting Mississippi State, though I think it’s been pretty clear for a while that game was never happening.
Now we’ll wait and see how they plan on formatting the schedules, assuming again that playing is even remotely possible in the fall. As McMurphy notes, the ACC has the added layer of having to essentially bring on Notre Dame as a full member under this scenario.
Most likely, though, the full postponement of fall sports is around the corner.