Miami football will travel most miles in ACC adjusted schedule

Nestled in South Florida over 400 miles away from their closest ACC rival it is not surprising that the Miami football program will travel the most miles in the conference’s revised schedule in 2020.

The ACC revised schedule has the Miami football team traveling 4,239 miles in 2020. Games at Georgia Tech, Michigan State and Virginia have been replaced by road games at Clemson, Louisville and North Carolina State in 2020. The three new road games reduce the Hurricanes travel from 3286 miles to 2,661 miles.

The altered ACC schedule was more about keeping conference teams from playing against Group of Five or FCS opponents without the capability to test for COVID 19 on the same level as conference schools. Other than Florida State there are no regional opponents in the ACC that Miami could play.

Miami athletic director Blake James mentioned earlier this week that the conference was striving to achieve competitive balance and keep the players safe. Another option that was reportedly being considered was three five-team pods for the ACC to play double round robins against and the addition of two other ACC games.

Miami would likely have been paired with Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and one of the North Carolina schools, likely Wake Forest. Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Virginia Tech would have made up another pod with the remaining five Northern schools including Notre Dame the third pod.

"1. MIAMITotal miles: 4,239Heavy travel, compared to its ACC counterparts at least, is always a given for Miami. Such is life when your closest conference opponent — Florida State — is located 407 miles away.And with the Seminoles making their way to South Florida this season, the closest road game on Miami’s schedule is now Clemson, with those schools separated by more than 600 miles from each other. With the changes, Louisville, N.C. State, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest now round out the Hurricanes’ road slate for 2020.Miami dropped Duke from the schedule, which was one of its likely easiest opponents, while Clemson, Louisville, and N.C. State all come as new additions."

The three added road games to the 2020 Miami football schedule does not include playing at Virginia Tech which was already part of the Hurricanes schedule this season. The compilation of the miles traveled by ACC teams in 2020 was put together by 247 Sports in “Ranking ACC football teams by miles they will travel in 2020.”

The addition of Notre Dame as a playing member of the ACC in 2020 made it difficult for the ACC to keep the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions. For this season the divisions have been eliminated and the teams with the top two winning percentages will play in the ACC Championship game in December in Charlotte.

Virginia Tech will travel 1,237 miles in 2020, the least amount in the ACC. The notion the ACC tried to make the schedule as regional as possible seems shallow. Miami lost Duke off their schedule and had them replaced with Clemson, Louisville and North Carolina State. The Tigers and Wolfpack make sense regionally, the Cardinals do not.