ACC reveals 7-year slate for brand-new 17-team league

• Andrea Adelson, ESPN

  • Elder WriterOct 30, 2023, 06:01 PM ET Close ACC press reporter.
  • Joined ESPN.com in 2010.
  • Graduate of the University of Florida.The ACC exposed its brand-new seven-year football scheduling design as a 17-team league with new members Cal, Stanford and SMU on Monday, including 16 secured matchups that will enter into impact starting with the 2024 season.The league will continue to play 8 conference games without departments. All 17 groups will play each other a minimum of twice over the next seven seasons– when at home and once on the roadway. The 14 present ACC teams will play an overall of three times each in California through 2030, and none will travel to California in back-to-back seasons.In a modification from the present 3-3-5 scheduling model, which the ACC adopted for this season, not every school has the very same number of protected rivalry games. Some schools have three; the majority have 2; Clemson has one; Georgia Tech and Louisville have zero.Eleven of the 16 protected games have actually been kept from the current design. Miami-Virginia Tech and NC State-Wake Forest are

  restored from the previous divisional format, while Cal, Stanford and SMU will all play each other.The yearly secured matches are: Boston College-Syracuse, Boston College-Pitt, Syracuse-Pitt, North Carolina-Virginia, North Carolina-Duke, North Carolina-NC State, NC State-Wake Forest, NC State-Duke, Duke-Wake Forest, Virginia Tech-Virginia, Florida State-Clemson, Miami-Florida State, Miami-Virginia Tech, Stanford-Cal, Stanford-SMU, and Cal-SMU. Editor’s Picks

1 Associated”Throughout the entire scheduling design process, the membership was incredibly thoughtful and purposeful in constructing an imaginative, flexible and aggressive conference scheduling design while keeping the student-athlete experience at the forefront,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. “The enjoyment and anticipation for our teams, alumni and fans will unquestionably construct as we expect the future of this extraordinary conference.”

In developing the new scheduling design, athletic directors from each school teamed up with the league to assist determine the matches they wished to safeguard. Eventually, the league Advertisements approved the brand-new scheduling design. When it comes to Georgia Tech and Louisville, both schools concurred they did not need any games protected, and that enabled the league more imagination and flexibility in arranging the whole schedule.

“I was singing to the conference office that we do not have a real competitor in the ACC, so we can be more flexible with trying to put a schedule together,” Louisville athletic director Josh Heird informed ESPN. “What are the tried-and-true rivals we need to keep together? Viewership drives some of these matches. However all in all, I believe everyone is quite delighted– as happy as you can be trying to accommodate 17 different desires and requires.”

Though Clemson and Georgia Tech will go away as an annual rivalry after their 89th matchup later this year, the groups will play 4 times between 2024 and 2030. Clemson-NC State, which has actually been played 91 times, also goes away as an annual game to allow the Wolfpack to play Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest on a yearly basis. However in a nod to that series history, Clemson-NC State will play three times over seven years.With the league now covering the East Coast to the West Coast, location was considered in this new design. The league wanted to lessen the variety of repeat journeys to the exact same geographic area in the same season, and make the most of the percentage of games versus groups within close proximity.For example, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State and

Miami play each other in 24 %of their games in between 2024 and 2030. Boston College, Pitt, Louisville and Syracuse will have 32% of their games against one another. The Carolina and Virginia schools also will play each other more frequently.Miami, NC State and Syracuse head west to play at Cal in 2024, while Louisville, SMU, Virginia Tech and Wake

Forest will play at Stanford.Though Cal, Stanford and SMU did not get a main vote on the scheduling design, all three schools took part in the discussions and had input.

Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton was contributed to the football scheduling committee after the Bears signed up with the ACC.”We play each of the [existing] ACC schools three times in the next 7 years, and we have fans who are truly thrilled for trips to Boston or

Syracuse, North Carolina and Florida,”Knowlton told ESPN. “I think there’s a chance to establish rivalries that will grow on every Cal alum and fan.”The one school not consisted of in the schedule release Monday is Notre Dame, which plays a set of nonconference games against ACC schools annually. That rotation will be determined at a later date, but it

remains uncertain whether future Notre Dame-Stanford games will count as an ACC game or stay nonconference.The 2024 football schedule with particular game dates for all matchups will be revealed Jan. 31, 2024, on the ACC Network.