ACC Unveils 2024 Football Schedule
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference announced its 2024 football schedule – the first under a new scheduling model with 17 total teams – Wednesday night during a two-hour special ACC Huddle: 2024 Football Schedule Release Show on ACC Network and simulcast on ESPN2.
The 72nd season of ACC Football is the first under a new seven-year scheduling model announced last October that runs from 2024 through 2030. Each team will play eight conference games per season, with all 17 teams playing each other at least twice over the next seven seasons – once at home and once on the road. The current 14 conference teams will play a total of three times each in California over the seven years and none will travel west to California in back-to-back seasons.
“The 2024 ACC Football schedule is significant for so many reasons. As always, there’s tremendous anticipation and excitement surrounding the upcoming season, which this year will include our newest members in Cal, SMU and Stanford,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “Throughout the entire process – from creating the new model and building the complete 2024 schedule – the membership was incredibly thoughtful and committed to producing an exciting, fair, and balanced schedule with our student-athlete experience as the top priority. Between first-time matchups, meaningful rivalry games and once again playing arguably the toughest collection of non-conference opponents – there will be no shortage of interest in ACC Football throughout the season.”
The new schedule will continue with no divisions, feature 17 schools and will increase the number of annual conference matchups from 56 to 68. The top two teams based on conference winning percentage will compete in the ACC Football Championship Game on the first Saturday in December at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Annual Rivalries
• Starting with the 2024 season, the new scheduling model protects 16 annual matchups, 11 of which were retained from the previous 3-5-5 schedule model, the restoration of two rivalries from the divisional format in Miami-Virginia Tech and NC State-Wake Forest, and three new annual matchups with the additions of the University of California (Cal), Southern Methodist University (SMU), and Stanford University. The 16 matchups are spread out over seven weeks of the season, culminating with five annual matchups set for the last Saturday (Nov. 30) of the regular season.
Virginia Tech at Miami – Sept. 27
North Carolina at Duke – Sept. 28
Clemson at Florida State – Oct. 5
Wake Forest at NC State – Oct. 5
SMU at Stanford – Oct. 19
Syracuse at Pitt – Oct. 24
Florida State at Miami – Oct. 26
North Carolina at Virginia – Oct. 26
Syracuse at Boston College – Nov. 9
Duke at NC State – Nov. 9
Stanford at Cal – Nov. 23
Cal at SMU – Nov. 30
Pitt at Boston College – Nov. 30
NC State at North Carolina – Nov. 30
Duke at Wake Forest – Nov. 30
Virginia at Virginia Tech – Nov. 30
Week 0 – Kick Off the Season in Ireland with ESPN’s College Gameday Built by The Home Depot
• Two teams from the ACC in Florida State and Georgia Tech will be part of history in Week 0 of the 2024 season, as ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot will broadcast live for the first time outside of the United States from Dublin, Ireland, for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic on Saturday, Aug. 24, to kick off the 2024 season.
• Florida State, which was part of ESPN’s College GameDay premiere show in 1993, will make its 35th appearance. Georgia Tech will be making its sixth appearance on the pregame show.
Week 1 – Full Slate of Football over Labor Day Weekend
• All 17 ACC football programs will be featured throughout Labor Day Weekend with 16 games over five days, Aug. 29-Sept. 2.
• The Labor Day weekend begins on Thursday, Aug. 29, with a trio of games, as North Carolina will travel to Minnesota in a rematch from last season, NC State will host Western Carolina, and Wake Forest will open at home versus North Carolina A&T.
• Friday, Aug. 30, will see new member Stanford host TCU, while Duke will kick off its first year under new head coach Manny Diaz with a home contest versus Elon.
• Saturday’s slate is highlighted by three ACC/SEC matchups, including the 2024 Aflac Kickoff Game between Clemson and Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, an in-state rivalry showdown with Miami traveling to Florida, and Virginia Tech on the road at Vanderbilt. Pitt will open up at home versus Kent State, Syracuse will host Ohio, and Louisville will entertain Austin Peay. In-state matchups on Saturday include Cal hosting UC Davis, Georgia Tech versus Georgia State, SMU taking on Houston Christian, and Virginia hosting Richmond.
• The ACC will once again have at least one team play on Labor Day Monday to wrap up an eventful opening weekend of ACC football, as Boston College will travel south to take on the defending ACC Champions Florida State in Tallahassee, Florida. This marks the 15th straight year (minus the 2020 COVID season) that the ACC has played on Labor Day and the 18th year since Florida State and Miami played on Labor Day in 2005.
ACC Thursday and Friday Night Football Games
• With intentionality in creating a schedule that ensured no school would play a Thursday night game on short rest, the ACC cooperatively worked with its schools and ESPN to adjust Thursday and Friday game dates to meet this objective.
• Over the first 13 weeks of the season, ACC teams will play in a combined 14 games on Thursday and Friday nights, which includes 15 different schools and contests hosted by a total of 11 different institutions. Highlighting the Thursday and Friday night contests are conference matchups between Virginia Tech and Miami on Sept. 27 and Florida State at Duke on Oct. 18.
• Boston College will play at Virginia Tech on Thursday, Oct. 17, as the Hokies will celebrate 30 years of ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime at Lane Stadium, while Stanford and Syracuse will meet on Friday, Sept. 20, as the Cardinal play their inaugural ACC contest in a game that will commemorate 44 years to the day since the Orange first hosted a game in what is now called the JMA Wireless Dome. The first game in the Dome was Sept. 20, 1980, as Syracuse hosted Miami (Ohio).
Making ACC Debuts
• The three new conference members in Cal, SMU, and Stanford will all play their first-ever ACC games at different times throughout the season. Stanford will be the first of the three to play an ACC game, as the Cardinal will play at Syracuse on Friday, Sept. 20, one day before Cal travels to Florida State for its first conference game on Saturday, Sept. 21. SMU’s first-ever ACC game will come at home versus Florida State the following weekend, Saturday, Sept. 28.
• Both Cal and Stanford will host their first home ACC game in Week 6, as “ACC Football Day in the Bay” will consist of Cal hosting Miami and Stanford welcoming Virginia Tech to The Golden State on Saturday, Oct. 5.
First-Ever Meetings to Come in Conference Play
• The 2024 football season will see a total of eight first-time matchups across ACC play, with all eight contests coming in different weeks. Cal will play Florida State, NC State, and Wake Forest for the first time in program history, while Stanford will face off with Syracuse, NC State, and Louisville for the very first time. SMU will have two first-time opponents in 2024 in Florida State and Virginia.
Stanford at Syracuse – Sept. 20
Cal at Florida State – Sept. 21
Florida State at SMU – Sept. 28
NC State at Cal – Oct. 19
Stanford at NC State – Nov. 2
Cal at Wake Forest – Nov. 8
Louisville at Stanford – Nov. 16
SMU at Virginia – Nov. 23
Challenging Non-Conference Slate
• The ACC’s non-conference schedule continues to be among the most difficult in the country. In addition to 26 games against Power Conference opponents (11 versus the SEC, five versus Big Ten, five versus Notre Dame, four versus Big 12, one versus Oregon State), the ACC will play 10 non-conference games against teams ranked in the final 2023 Associated Press Top 25 poll.
• A total of 11 schools – Boston College, Cal, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Pitt, SMU, Stanford, Virginia, and Virginia Tech – play two Power Conference opponents (including Notre Dame) in non-conference play.
• ACC teams will play 34 non-conference games against opponents that appeared in a bowl game last year.
• ACC teams will play 10 non-conference games against teams in ESPN’s 2024 Way-Too-Early Top 25.
Games Against Notre Dame
• ACC teams will play five non-conference games against Notre Dame in 2024. Four of the five contests will come on the road at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
Louisville at Notre Dame – Sept. 28
Stanford at Notre Dame – Oct. 12
Notre Dame at Georgia Tech – Oct. 19
Florida State at Notre Dame – Nov. 9
Virginia at Notre Dame – Nov. 16
ACC Football Championship Game
• The 2024 ACC Football Championship Game will be played on Dec. 7 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will feature the top two teams based on conference winning percentage. The ACC and the Charlotte Sports Foundation have an agreement in place to keep the championship game in Charlotte through the 2030 season.