The ACC announced the conference matchups Tuesday and Duke has four home-and-home partners, including UNC as always, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and newcomer Syracuse.
The first Duke-Syracuse game, wherever it's played, is bound to be a media spectacle.
Florida State, Maryland, N.C. State, Virginia and Virginia Tech will all visit Cameron while Duke will head out to Boston College, Clemson and Miami and introductory visits to Pittsburgh and Notre Dame. As predicted, the Terps get no candy for their last go-round: UNC's not going either.
Maryland's home schedule: Miami, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Pitt, Virginia, Florida State and Virginia Tech. State's not going either. They do get all three new teams in Comcast.
We don't mean to insult anyone, but there are quite a few teams going to Maryland which are rebuilding. It's almost as if you can hear the schedulers figuring out, "how can we screw them?" And: do we have to send a North Carolina team to New Mississippi?
This is all a big deal in Syracuse. Check out their headline after the announcement: With Duke on the schedule, is it time to put the court in center of the Carrier Dome? What, they couldn't do that for Georgetown?
It's somewhat rewarding to see that they don't put UNC in that headline, we must say.
So what about the new guys?
Syracuse's partners are Boston College and Pittsburgh. Aside from Duke, the Orange also has home-and-home with Miami.
Syracuse gets Carolina, Georgia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina State and Notre Dame in the Carrier Dome and travels to Florida State, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Virginia.
Surprise: Notre Dame gets Duke and UNC at home too. UNC is home-and-home along with Boston College, Georgia Tech and Virginia. They'll get one-offs at home with Clemson, Pittsburgh, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech and road trips to Florida State, Miami, Maryland, Syracuse and Wake Forest.
Pitt's home-and-home partners will be Clemson, North Carolina State, Syracuse and some Big Ten team.
Home games will see Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Maryland, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Syracuse visiting.
The Panthers will take to the road to play Clemson, Boston College, Maryland, Miami, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Notre Dame and Syracuse.