Quote:Shortly after Dave Clawson finished up his introductory press conference at Wake Forest, a line of alumni came up to him to offer their congratulations.

Their handshakes over, they each added one more line before leaving: "Just beat Carolina!"

Clawson later looked at the football schedule. Wake Forest was scheduled to play North Carolina twice over the next 10 years. The game his fan base considered most important had become a victim to divisional alignment.

So the Demon Deacons and Tar Heels decided to do something to remedy their plight. In January, they scheduled nonconference games against each another in 2019 and 2021.

On the surface, it sounds ridiculous -- two ACC members forced to go the nonconference route so they can play more often. But this is what expansion and, in turn, the creation of divisions has come to in college football.

That one example is enough to raise questions about the purpose divisions serve. Are they worth the lines in the sand they have formed? Not only have traditional rivalries been abandoned, but in the four Power 5 conferences that have divisions, there is an imbalance between them, creating schisms between institutions increasingly worried about where they reside and how it impacts their College Football Playoff prospects.

Throw in imbalances with permanent crossover rivals, especially in the ACC and SEC, and it all adds up to growing unhappiness with the status quo.

For all these reasons, the deregulation of league championship games has become an intriguing proposition. The ACC first submitted deregulation legislation to the NCAA in early 2014. The Big 12 has since joined as a co-sponsor.

If the proposed legislation passes next year, leagues would no longer be required to stay in divisions. Instead, each league would have the ability to determine how it chooses its championship game participants.

While deregulation makes perfect sense for the Big 12, a league with only 10 teams and no divisions, it remains nebulous why the ACC would be behind such a move.

Surely the endgame would be to eliminate divisions, creating opportunities to play league members more often, while also ensuring the top two teams in the league make it into the title game -- enhancing playoff opportunities.

But that is not the case. The majority of ACC athletic directors and coaches want to keep their division format. Commissioner John Swofford has said repeatedly the idea behind deregulation is based on principle.

"We're not sitting around anticipating that, 'Hey, this is going to change, and we're going to have the freedom to change what we're doing, so let's change it,'" Swofford said. "The overall sense around our table right now is to maintain what we're doing.

"Could that change in the future? Sure, anything could change in the future, but right now it's very evident that's where the majority are in terms of our situation."

That has created some confusion about what, exactly, the endgame is to all this.

"I'd like to know what it is people want to do," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said. "I don't think deregulating it just for the sake of deregulation is good. We could end up with 20-team conferences and four five-team pods. What are we trying to do? If somebody wanted to identify what it is they wanted to do, and if it were reasonable, I would say, why not?

"I'm open to creativity and deregulation, but I'm not open to just a blank check to reorganize the regular season however you choose."

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