The ACC announced a new football scheduling model Tuesday that eliminates the conference’s Atlantic and Coastal divisions. The new system will go into effect in the 2023 season.
In the new model, each ACC team will annually play three primary opponents and play each of the other 10 league teams twice—once home and once away—during a four-year cycle. Under the new system, Boston College football will annually face Miami, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse.
The new model allows each ACC team to face all 13 other ACC opponents both home and away at least once during a four-year cycle.
“The future ACC football scheduling model provides significant enhancements for our schools and conference, with the most important being our student-athletes having the opportunity to play every school both home and away over a four-year period,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips wrote in a release. “In the end, it was clear this model is in the best interest of our student-athletes, programs and fans, at this time.”
With the conference’s Atlantic and Coastal divisions eliminated under the new model, the ACC’s postseason play will take on a new format. The top two teams based on conference winning percentage will compete in the ACC Championship game.
BC and its three primary opponents are all former Big East foes. BC joined the ACC in 2005. Miami joined in 2004, and Pitt and Syracuse each joined in 2013.
BC and the Orange, both former Atlantic Division members, have played each other in eight of the teams’ last 10 seasons, while the Eagles have faced Miami and Pitt—former Coastal Division members—much less frequently in recent years.
BC and Pitt have only faced off three times since the Panthers joined the ACC: in 2014, 2019, and 2020. Miami and BC have only played twice in the past 10 seasons, most recently in 2018.
With the change, BC will no longer face Atlantic Division foes as frequently, including powerhouses like Clemson After playing Clemson in Death Valley for three years in a row, the Eagles will play Clemson at home in the 2022 and 2024 seasons but won’t return to Death Valley until 2026.
After playing Wake Forest and NC State—the top two teams in Atlantic Division in 2021—on the road this year, BC will play the Demon Deacons and the Wolfpack at home in 2024 and 2025, respectively, but won’t face either team on the road again until 2026.
BC’s ACC Opponents Over Four-Year Cycle
2023
Home:
Florida State
Miami
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Away:
Georgia Tech
Louisville
Pitt
Syracuse
2024
Home:
Clemson
Pitt
Syracuse
Wake Forest
Away:
Duke
Florida State
Miami
North Carolina
2025
Home:
Georgia Tech
Louisville
Miami
NC State
Away:
Pitt
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech
2026
Home:
Duke
North Carolina
Pitt
Syracuse
Away:
Clemson
Miami
NC State
Wake Forest
