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For at least the last few offseasons, ESPN's conference-specific blogs have picked a week-by-week "Ultimate Road Trip" for each league. This year's Ultimate ACC Road Trip just wrapped up this morning, and since it's a Friday, I thought it was worth a quick look.
While there are 14 weeks in the regular season, some of the weeks had two different games chosen since they were on different days (one Thursday and one Saturday, mostly). In total, there were 19 ACC games chosen, of which Syracuse had two -- Louisville at Syracuse (week 6) and Duke at Syracuse (week 11). The full list of matchups are below:
| Week | Road Team | Home Team |
| 1 | Florida State | Oklahoma State |
| 1 | Miami | Louisville |
| 2 | Pittsburgh | Boston College |
| 2 | Virginia Tech | Ohio State |
| 3 | USC | Boston College |
| 4 | Clemson | Florida State |
| 5 | Duke | Miami |
| 6 | Virginia Tech | North Carolina |
| 6 | Louisville | Syracuse |
| 7 | North Carolina | Notre Dame |
| 8 | Notre Dame | Florida State |
| 9 | Miami | Virginia Tech |
| 10 | Florida State | Louisville |
| 11 | Clemson | Wake Forest |
| 11 | Duke | Syracuse |
| 12 | Florida State | Miami |
| 13 | North Carolina | Duke |
| 13 | Louisville | Notre Dame |
| 14 | South Carolina | Clemson |
Obviously some teams are better represented than others, but a lot of that also has to do with how many "good" matchups are crowded into some weeks, and how many "bad' ones may dominate others. The total count for each ACC team (plus Notre Dame):
| Team | Total Games |
| Florida State | 5 |
| Louisville | 4 |
| Miami | 4 |
| Clemson | 3 |
| North Carolina | 3 |
| Notre Dame | 3 |
| Virginia Tech | 3 |
| Duke | 3 |
| Boston College | 2 |
| Syracuse | 2 |
| Pittsburgh | 1 |
| Wake Forest | 1 |
| Georgia Tech | 0 |
| NC State | 0 |
| Virginia | 0 |
***
The fact that Syracuse finished ahead of five other squads is nice, and considering we're tied with Boston College, ninth/10th on the overall list isn't that bad at all. Florida State, as the obvious top team in the conference, has the most games with five. And Georgia Tech, NC State and Virginia all ended up with zero, which should be largely unsurprising to anyone who watched those teams last season.
There's nothing to really feel "jilted" about here, but are there any other Syracuse games that could have been chosen?
Honestly, nothing else really comes to mind. Our biggest rivalry matchup -- with Boston College -- is the same weekend as the South Carolina v. Clemson and Florida State v. Florida games (among others). Notre Dame v. Syracuse sounds appealing enough in week five, though I'd agree that Duke v. Miami (and Clemson v. North Carolina) are both better options.
But what about you? Anything other games stick out as necessities on an "ACC Road Trip" this season? Or perhaps other teams' games would be preferred? Share your thoughts below.