043: Scattershot of thoughts
Random thoughts across ACC women's soccer, Raleigh's entertainment district, and Notre Dame's relationship with the ACC.
Hello! This week I’m trying something a bit different and sharing a scattershot of three thoughts.
ACC women’s soccer
Major development planned in West Raleigh
Notre Dame’s record in football against the ACC
Fútbol before football
Women’s soccer is the first collegiate sport to begin ahead of the 2023 fall semester. All 14 ACC teams (Georgia Tech doesn’t field a team) are scheduled to open the season this Thursday, August 17.
Five ACC teams are ranked in the top-six of the preseason United Soccer Coaches Poll. The league is powerful. This includes North Carolina or the women’s soccer school.
Since 1982, the Tar Heels have won 21 of 41 NCAA National Championships. From 1982 to 2012, Carolina did not go longer than two seasons without a national title.
The dynasty will likely never be as prolific as it was during the late 1980s and 1990s. UNC’s record from the 1986 to 1994 seasons was 205-2-8 and it won all nine National Championships.
Carolina has not won a title since 2012 or the last 10 seasons, but it’s not because the Heels haven’t been close. Over the last 10 seasons, North Carolina has won around 80 percent of its games and made the College Cup five times with three runner-up finishes.
Notice several ACC teams on this list over the past 10 seasons:
For all the hooting and hollering Florida State did over the past two weeks, the Seminoles women’s soccer program has been its most impressive athletic outfit over the past decade. The ‘Noles have won three National Championships since 2012.
Raleigh’s entertainment district
The Carolina Hurricanes and Centennial Authority have agreed to a 20-year lease extension for PNC Arena. The chairman of the Centennial Authority calls it the greatest thing to happen to Raleigh since NC State decided to build its university there.
It’s a big deal. Literally. Tons of retail, restaurant, and office space. A hotel and a sportsbook. Affordable housing, and a music venue.
NC State fans are concerned with parking lots and tailgates. Change is hard, and a lot of those concerns are valid. But what about public transit?
One thing that always jumps out at me when spending time in Raleigh or Charlotte compared to other larger cities in America is the lack of reliable public transit. Charlotte is a little ahead with the light rail, but it’s also tried some not so great attempts too. Does Raleigh plan to add more public transit?
I’m curious if it gets any easier to get to West Raleigh from Durham or Chapel Hill or Cary or Wake Forest.
Here is an attempt at using the Mapbox API to visualize driving time to the current arena without gameday traffic.
Soft-yeses, as to not rock the boat
This tweet from Matt Norlander on the votes to add Cal and Stanford sums up conference realignment to me.
The phrase “soft-yeses, as to not rock the boat” is just perfect.
Over the past week, it’s reported that Notre Dame was the league member encouraging other ACC schools to expand. Peer pressure? Is Notre Dame steering the boat that is the ACC’s future?
I think you can make arguments that the Irish could save the league by joining as a full-time member. It feels fair to also argue its determination to stay independent is causing the ACC to simultaneously stay together and drive other schools to abandon the leaky boat.
Anywho. How does Notre Dame perform against the ACC on the gridiron?
Notre Dame has won 28 consecutive regular season games against ACC opponents. There are two postseason losses to Clemson by a combined score 64-13 in this span too.
The Irish are 41-9 against ACC opponents since the start of its scheduling agreement in 2014. The Irish are 32-3 against the league since the start of the 2017 season.
No fancy graphics, here is Notre Dame’s record and point differential against each ACC league member in this time frame:
# Notre Dame against the
# ACC since 2014
opponent W L +/-
Boston College 5 0 123
Clemson 2 3 -25
Duke 2 1 42
Florida State 3 1 44
Georgia Tech 3 0 81
Louisville 2 1 20
Miami 1 1 -30
NC State 1 1 14
North Carolina 5 0 67
Pittsburgh 3 0 59
Syracuse 5 0 107
Virginia 3 0 47
Virginia Tech 3 1 23
Wake Forest 3 0 61
Total 41 9 63350 of 115 of Notre Dame’s games since the 2014 season are against ACC opponents. That’s ~43 percent.
Here are the records against other conferences during this same time frame:
# Notre Dame records
# grouped by conference
# opponent since 2014
conf W L
ACC 41 9
American Athletic 9 2
Big 12 2 2
Big Ten 7 5
Conference USA 1 0
FBS Independents 3 0
Mid-American 5 0
Mountain West 3 0
Pac-12 10 8
SEC 4 3
Sun Belt 0 1
Total 85 30The small private school located in the heart of Big Ten Big Eighteen country has played only ~10 percent of its games against teams in that league since 2014.
The Irish have played Syracuse more times than Purdue and Michigan State combined over the past eight seasons. Those are once long time rivals for the Irish.
Notre Dame’s relationship with the ACC remains complicated on-and-off the field. It certainly feels like benefits might not always be mutual. The arrogance is sometimes shared and often times resented.
Maybe the ACC should consider rocking the boat and changing its scheduling arrangement with the Irish. Count me as a “soft-yes” for that.
Thanks for reading, you can also check out . .
the code for the charts and graphs in this post
Notes with charts and graphs
a simple app to look up schedules and opponent win totals for college football teams
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