ACC Football: What to Know About the 2023 Schedule
The ACC released its complete football schedule for the 2023 season on Monday. The 14-team league will start play on Thursday, Oct. 31, when Wake Forest faces FCS Elon (no team in the conference plays during Week Zero). It will end on Dec. 2, when the conference championship game will once again be played in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The ACC’s 2023 slate comes with a fresh twist, as next fall will mark the first intended year in the league without divisions since 2004. It also includes plenty of high-profile non-conference games, such as North Carolina-South Carolina and Florida State-LSU in Week 1, Miami-Texas A&M in Week 2, and the return of the Backyard Brawl between Pittsburgh and West Virginia to Morgantown in Week 3.
What are the primary takeaways, tidbits and things to know for the 2023 ACC football season?
How the Elimination of Divisions Impacted the Schedule
The ACC will not be split into the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions in 2023. The league has joined the growing list of conferences to abolish divisions in order to pit the top two teams in the standings against one another for its title game. The change not only impacts the conference championship game but the regular-season schedule for each team. Rather than playing each of its six division mates and two “crossover” opponents, every ACC team will now face three teams every season and the other 10 twice apiece during a four-year cycle — once at home and once on the road. Defending champion Clemson, for instance, will not play former Atlantic division foes Louisville and Boston College in 2023, but the Tigers will face four teams that were previously members of the Coastal division in Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami and North Carolina. We break down each team’s annual, non-annual, and missed opponents for the 2023 season below.
Where Does Notre Dame Fit In?
The ACC has the added wrinkle of sprinkling Notre Dame into its schedule each season, and next year, the Irish are extra involved. After playing just four ACC opponents in 2022, Notre Dame will face six teams from the league. Those will be NC State, Duke, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Clemson, and Wake Forest. The Nov. 4 matchup at Clemson should be the headliner, as the Tigers try to avenge a 35-14 loss from last season. Notre Dame, meanwhile, will look to continue its scorching success against ACC teams. The Fighting Irish have won 28 straight regular-season matchups against opponents from the ACC dating back to 2017, with their only losses during that time coming in the 2018 Cotton Bowl and 2020 ACC Championship Game that the Irish participated in after joining the league that season under special circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both of those losses were to Clemson.
Conference Games Right Off the Bat
While no ACC teams will take the field in Week Zero, the conference will waste no time getting into league play, with two conference games scheduled for Labor Day weekend. Both are set for prime-time, weeknight broadcasts. Louisville will face Georgia Tech on Friday, Sept. 1 as Jeff Brohm makes his debut for the Cardinals and Brent Key coaches his first game as the full-time leader for the Yellow Jackets. Then, Clemson will open its season against Duke on Monday, Sept. 4.
Other Marquee Week 1 Matchups
ACC fans will want to circle a handful of non-conference matchups during the Week 1 slate, as well. The headliner has to be Florida State’s rematch with LSU, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 3 in Orlando. Both teams are ranked in the top 10 of Athlon's Way-Too-Early Top 25 for the 2023 season, leading us to tab the matchup as the best game on the entire Week 1 slate. Florida State won last year’s season-opening matchup between the two teams 24-23. The rivalry matchup between North Carolina and South Carolina in Charlotte should provide plenty of entertainment, as well. Both teams are set to return the starting quarterbacks for their high-powered offenses, so points should be plentiful. Lastly, Virginia will face Tennessee in Nashville in what should be an emotionally charged game, as it will be the first time the Cavaliers have taken the field since three of the team’s players were killed last November.
North Carolina's Challenging Start to the Season
The aforementioned matchup against South Carolina, which ended the 2022 season red-hot, will provide a good early test for Drake Maye and the Tar Heels. But that isn’t the only challenge the team will face in the month of September. After facing South Carolina, Mack Brown’s team will take on Appalachian State in Chapel Hill. The perennially scrappy Mountaineers nearly upset North Carolina a season ago in a 63-61 thriller. Then, the Tar Heels will take on a Big Ten opponent in Minnesota on Sept. 16 before traveling to Pittsburgh the following week for their conference opener. North Carolina’s bye comes early in its schedule on Sept. 30, but after that start, the Tar Heels should be ready for a reprieve.
Backyard Brawl Moved to Week 3
The college football world was pleased to see one of the sport’s more bitter rivalries, the “Backyard Brawl” series between Pittsburgh and West Virginia, renewed in 2022. While last season’s game between the two teams, the first since 2011, was played in Week 1, this year’s matchup will be held on Sept. 16. It’ll likely serve as the headliner — or at least one of the two, alongside North Carolina-Minnesota — of the ACC slate for that week.
Florida State-Clemson Set for Sept. 23
Fans won’t have to wait long to see the marquee matchup of the ACC season. Clemson and Florida State, both of which reside in the top 15 of the Way-Too-Early rankings, will meet in Death Valley in Week 4. After at one point struggling to catch Florida State, the Tigers have owned the Seminoles in recent seasons, winning seven consecutive matchups in the series. But this could be the year that Florida State ends that streak after bringing back starting quarterback Jordan Travis and landing an impressive haul of transfers. The winner of the game should be the early favorite to win the conference title — although it could well have to win a rematch on Dec. 2 in order to do so.
The Tigers have won seven of the past eight ACC championships, but they will have their work cut out if they’re going to do so again in 2023. While the aforementioned matchups against Florida State and Notre Dame will be the games most people will circle on Clemson’s schedule, they are far from the only tough tests. Following their bye on Oct. 14, the Tigers have to play at Miami and at NC State before hosting Notre Dame. Both of those teams will likely be picked in the preseason to finish in the top half of the conference standings, and both should have raucous crowds when Clemson comes to town. Clemson gets a bit of a reprieve in the form of Georgia Tech after the Notre Dame game, but closes with contests against North Carolina and in-state rival South Carolina. If Clemson is going to return to its former status as a national title contender, it’s going to need to play its best football down the stretch.
Louisville Facing Unique Test in Brohm’s First Season
The schedule reveal brought both perks and drawbacks for Cardinal fans looking forward to Brohm’s first year at the helm. The good news: Louisville avoids Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina — the only three ACC teams ranked in the Way-Too-Early Top 25. However, the Cardinals are also the only team in the conference that will play 11 Power 5 opponents next season. Not only will Louisville host Notre Dame on Oct. 7, but it will also travel to Indiana in Week 3 and face Kentucky in the annual Governor’s Cup rivalry to end the regular season. The Cards’ only break comes with a Week 2 matchup against FCS Murray State.
Miami's Brutal Stretch
The Mario Cristobal era in Miami didn’t get off to the best start in 2022, with the Hurricanes scuffling to a 5-7 finish. Still, given how Cristobal has recruited, the team could be a factor in the ACC race — if it can survive a grueling five-week stretch in the second half of the season. From Oct. 14 through Nov. 11, the Hurricanes face North Carolina, Clemson, Virginia, NC State and Florida State. Excluding the Cavaliers, the other four opponents seem likely to be the top four teams in most preseason predictions. Miami will play three of those teams — North Carolina, NC State and Florida State — on the road. Facing Louisville at home afterward won’t be a cakewalk, either.
Sam Hartman Faces Former Team
While Notre Dame’s matchup against Clemson seems likely to have more College Football Playoff ramifications, another of the Fighting Irish’s ACC matchups will provide a compelling storyline. Quarterback Sam Hartman, who transferred to Notre Dame this offseason after starting the past three seasons behind center for Wake Forest, will face his former team when the Demon Deacons travel to South Bend in the penultimate week of the regular season. Expectations are not necessarily sky-high for Wake Forest this season with Hartman gone, but it seems a safe bet that the team will be fired up for that matchup.
Weeknight Games Abound
The ACC has embraced opportunities to play games during the week in recent seasons, and that will continue in 2023. The league has a whopping 12 games scheduled to be played on Thursday or Friday. The first will be Wake Forest-Elon on Aug. 31, followed by Louisville-Georgia Tech and the “Miami Bowl” — Miami vs. Miami (Ohio) — the next night. Louisville will be a staple of the mid-week broadcasts. The Cardinals will also face Murray State on Thursday, Sept. 7; they’ll face NC State on Friday, Sept. 29; and Virginia on Thursday, Nov. 9. The Wolfpack’s Friday matchup against the Cardinals will be its second straight such game, as they are also slated to play Virginia on Friday, Sept. 22. Other noteworthy weeknight games include Syracuse-Virginia Tech (Thursday, Oct. 26), Syracuse-Boston College (Friday, Nov. 3), and Boston College-Pitt (Thursday, Nov. 16). Finally, Boston College and Miami will conclude their regular seasons by facing one another on Black Friday: Nov. 24.
Conference Championship Game Back in Charlotte
For the seventh season in a row, Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium (home of the Carolina Panthers) will play host to the league title game. The matchup is set for Saturday, Dec. 2. And thanks to the league's decision to abolish divisions, fans could potentially be treated to a Clemson vs. Florida State showdown.
