The Atlantic Coast Conference announced the 2018 football schedule Wednesday, and once again, it includes arguably the most challenging non-conference competition among the Power 5 conferences.
- ACC teams will play more games (19) against Power 5 competition (including Notre Dame) than any of their peers.
- ACC teams will play more games against non-conference teams (13) ranked in last year’s final Associated Press Top 25 than any other Power 5 conference.
- The ACC has the highest percentage (.232) of games against teams ranked in the final AP poll of any of its peer conferences.
ACC teams will play 27 games against non-conference opponents that participated in bowl games last season, the highest total among Power 5 conferences. - ACC teams will play 13 non-conference games against teams in ESPN’s 2018 Way-Too-Early Top 25, which is the most among their peers.
- ACC teams’ non-conference opponents had the highest combined winning percentage (.558) in 2017 of any of the Power 5 leagues.
“The 2018 ACC Football schedule provides our schools and programs the opportunity to build upon the numerous football successes that have been achieved in recent years,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “Once again, our teams will be facing both a daunting conference schedule and what is collectively the most challenging non-conference schedule in the country. There will be no shortage of excitement for fans on a weekly basis.”
ACC teams will play two neutral site games on the opening weekend of the season, including Louisville facing defending national champion Alabama in the Camping World Kickoff in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, Sept. 1. Miami and LSU will meet in the AdvoCare Cowboys Classic in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday, Sept. 2.
The ACC’s traditional Labor Day Monday game features Virginia Tech at Florida State.
The ACC will have four games nationally televised by ESPN or ESPN2 on Thursday nights, including Boston College at Wake Forest (Sept. 13), North Carolina at Miami (Sept. 27), Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech (Oct. 25) and Wake Forest at NC State (Nov. 8). The league also has five Friday night games, including Georgia Tech at Louisville (Oct. 5), Miami at Boston College (Oct. 26), Pitt at Virginia (Nov. 2), Louisville at Syracuse (Nov. 9) and Virginia at Virginia Tech (Nov. 23).
The schedule includes five games against Notre Dame, which finished No. 11 in the final 2017 AP Top 25 poll. Wake Forest hosts the Irish on Sept. 22, and Virginia Tech welcomes Notre Dame to Blacksburg on Oct. 6. Pitt (Oct. 13) and Florida State (Nov. 10) travel to South Bend. Syracuse and Notre Dame will meet in Yankee Stadium in The Bronx on Nov. 17.
In all, the schedule includes 56 regular-season conference match-ups over a span of 13 weeks and is capped off with the 14th annual Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game, which will be played on Saturday, Dec. 1, at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.
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