Clemson’s ACC schedule for 2024 and beyond will be completely different. A first look
The ACC has overhauled its football scheduling model following the additions of Cal, Stanford and SMU, which means more changes for the Clemson football team.
The Tigers will continue to play eight conference games annually in a divisionless format (four at home, four on the road), and they’ll play at least two games against every other school in the ACC over the next seven years (one home, one road).
To mitigate coast-to-coast travel to California, where former Pac-12 members Cal and Stanford both play, Clemson and the other 13 current ACC member schools will play three total games in California from 2024-30, according to the model approved by league athletic directors earlier this month and announced Monday night.
No team will travel to California in back-to-back seasons. Clemson’s first trip to California is scheduled for 2026, when the Tigers travel to Berkeley to play Cal. The Tigers’ first game at Stanford in the Palo Alto area is set for 2028.
And Clemson’s first trip to SMU, the Dallas-based school that’s jumping from the American Athletic Conference to the ACC, will come in 2027 when the Tigers play the Mustangs on the road.
As part of the new schedule, Clemson will also play former ACC Atlantic Division opponent Florida State annually in one of the ACC’s 16 protected rivalries. The Tigers’ two other annual meetings established in last year’s short-lived scheduling model (vs. N.C. State, vs. Georgia Tech) are eliminated with the 2024-30 model.
Here is Clemson’s full list of 2024 ACC opponents:
Home: Louisville, NC State, Virginia, Stanford
Away: Pitt, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Florida State
For 2024, the Tigers also have non-conference games scheduled against Georgia (neutral site in Atlanta), App State (home), FCS The Citadel (home) and rival South Carolina (home). The USC game contract hasn’t been signed but will be soon.
One thing that won’t change with this new schedule: championship game qualification. As the ACC is doing for the 2023 season, the top two teams based on conference winning percentage will play each other in the ACC championship game the first Saturday at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers.
Under the former ACC championship game setup, which ran 2005-22, the Atlantic Division champion (often Clemson in recent seasons) and Coastal Division champion would meet in the conference championship game. The ACC nixed those divisions last summer for the 2023 season and beyond.
According to an ACC release, the full 2024 ACC football schedule with specific game dates will be revealed at 9 p.m. Jan. 31, 2024 on a special ACC Network broadcast.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Cal, SMU and Stanford to the ACC and look forward to having them compete beginning in the fall of 2024,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in Monday’s release. “Throughout the entire scheduling model process, the membership was incredibly thoughtful and purposeful in building a creative, flexible and aggressive conference scheduling model while keeping the student-athlete experience at the forefront.”
Clemson, the reigning ACC champion, is 4-4 and 2-4 in the ACC this season. Coach Dabo Swinney’s program has lost two conference games in a row for the first time since 2010 and is No. 10 out of 14 teams in the ACC standings heading into a Saturday home game vs. Notre Dame (noon, ABC).
What about realignment?
The shaky status of the ACC is obviously going to color any discussion about scheduling models, especially one like Monday’s that runs for seven years.
Clemson was one of three schools that voted “no” on adding Cal, Stanford and SMU to the conference, as The State previously reported. Florida State and UNC — two other schools generally regarded as the most valuable and intriguing to other conferences in a potential realignment — also voted against the acquisitions.
Clemson has taken a far more private approach to conference realignment that stands in stark contrast to Florida State, which blasted the ACC on a public board of trustees meeting in August and has been outspoken about needing to make changes amid a growing revenue gap between the ACC and the SEC and Big Ten.
But, as indicated by a statement after ACC expansion in August and public comments over the last two years from athletic director Graham Neff, the additions of Cal, Stanford and SMU won’t end Clemson’s push for the best possible situation athletics-wise and football-wise, which naturally could include a move to another conference.
The Tigers haven’t been as explicitly tied to realignment reports as they were last summer, when national reports linked them to both the SEC and the Big Ten. But they continue to “work silently in the background exploring options” and research “whether they could break the conference’s grant of rights,” according to a report earlier this year from 247Sports. The ACC’s grant of rights runs through 2036.
“Clemson’s leadership has been aligned and consistent throughout this process, and continues to position our University for long-term success,” the school said in a statement August. “We respect the conference membership’s decision and welcome the University of California-Berkeley, Southern Methodist University and Stanford University to the ACC.”
Clemson’s future ACC schedules
2024
Home: Louisville, NC State, Virginia, Stanford
Away: Pitt, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Florida State
2025
Home: Syracuse, Duke, Florida State, SMU
Away: Boston College, Louisville, North Carolina, Georgia Tech
2026
Home: North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami (Fla.)
Away: Syracuse, Duke, Florida State, Cal
2027
Home: Boston College, Wake Forest, Florida State, Stanford
Away: Louisville, NC State, Virginia Tech, SMU
2028
Home: Syracuse, Louisville, NC State, Pitt
Away: Virginia, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Stanford
2029
Home: Virginia, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Cal
Away: Pitt, North Carolina, Miami (Fla.), SMU
2030
Home: North Carolina, Duke, Virginia Tech, Miami (Fla.)
Away: Boston College, Wake Forest, Florida State, Cal
Exact dates TBA. The full 2024 schedule will be released in January.
