ACC 2026 schedule release: Five games to watch out for

The eighteen schools in the ACC announced their 2026 schedules at the end of January. A conference that sent a team to the National Championship Game last year, there’s plenty of intrigue ahead of a season where they move to nine conference games and see three programs head outside the States to play college football. Here are five of the best matchups to keep an eye out for:

Week 0: NC State vs Virginia (Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos, Rio de Janeiro)

Week 0, as a concept, has largely been treated with suspicion in college football; a blatant creation by the TV networks to drive viewing figures in an otherwise dead weekend in August. But two conferences in particular - the Big 12 and the ACC - have used it as an opportunity to be creative in increasing exposure.

The ACC is no stranger to sending a team to Dublin to kick off the season; Georgia Tech and Florida State came over in 2024, North Carolina heads to the Emerald Isle this year, and Pitt is scheduled for 2027. But in an ambitious move, two other representatives head to Rio de Janeiro on August 29.

NC State and Virginia square off in the first-ever college football game to be played in South America. The matchup was initially designated a non-conference game, a result of the ACC’s convoluted scheduling system following expansion. But the move to nine conference games meant it is now officially an ACC tilt.

Virginia heads to Brazil on the back of one of their strongest seasons in recent memory. Head coach Tony Elliott was on the hot seat this time last year, but an 11-win campaign was as many victories as he’d managed the three years prior - and only a loss in the ACC title game kept the Cavaliers out of the playoffs.

Much of that improvement was thanks to quarterback Chandler Morris, who threw for 3,000 yards last year. The Cavs QB was denied a seventh year of eligibility by the NCAA, and UVA has responded by bringing in Beau Pribula (Missouri) and Eli Holstein (Pitt). This should still be a dangerous passing offense.

The model of consistency in Dave Doeren’s 13 years in charge, NC State has been to a bowl game eleven times under his stewardship. They’re even better set under center than their opponents, with CJ Bailey returning after two strong seasons as a starter, but have lost some serious talent via the portal, including star running back Hollywood Smothers and receiver duo Terrell Anderson and Noah Rogers.

Last season, the Wolfpack came out on top in a close one in Raleigh. Rio will be a different prospect, but regardless of who heads home victorious, this is a spectacle not to be missed.

Week 5: Miami @ Clemson

We jump ahead to Week 5 for our next big ACC matchup, which will give us a decent body of work to understand more about these two programs in seasons that are pivotal to each for very different reasons.

Miami has no intention of suffering a regression after the heartbreak of losing in the National Championship Game. With heaps of young talent returning to Coral Gables, the ‘Canes have been very active in the transfer portal, bringing in seven 4-star recruits and losing none.

Malachi Toney might be the most explosive player on any roster in college football this season. Clemson represents Miami’s first major test of 2026 - will they be able to maintain the momentum from last season?

The Tigers, on the other hand, feel like they’re at a crossroads. Dabo Swinney has been reluctant to embrace the transfer portal era, and Clemson has definitely regressed from rubbing shoulders with the elite in the sport. Those two National Championships in the 2010’s seem a distant memory in Death Valley.

By the time Clemson welcomes Miami on October 3rd, the pressure might be on their head coach; the Tigers have a tough test in Week 1 against LSU. Dabo might need a win against the Hurricanes to make sure that his nineteenth season in charge at Clemson isn’t his last.

Week 7: Georgia Tech @ Virginia Tech

It’s a new era in Blacksburg, Virginia.

The Hokies pulled off one of the two biggest hires this offseason when they announced James Franklin as their new head coach. A proud program who were a dominant ACC force under Frank Beamer for 25 years, VT haven’t won more than eight games in a season since 2017.

Franklin should change that very quickly. Whilst he wasn’t able to break the Michigan-Ohio State glass ceiling in the Big Ten, he did leave Penn State with a phenomenal 104-45 record. Maybe more impressively, he delivered back-to-back nine-win seasons at Vanderbilt - unprecedented in Nashville at that time.

Week 7 seems like their first big test. Georgia Tech has become a robust ACC program under Brent Key. And whilst they have a penchant for losing silly games against inferior opposition, they always save their best performances for the toughest matchups on their slate.

There’s a lot of change in Atlanta. Quarterback Haynes King leaves as perhaps the greatest QB in Yellow Jacket history, likely replaced by Alberto Mendoza, younger brother of Heisman trophy winner Fernando. Key builds his units from the inside out, so expect elite line play; this game should be a slobberknocker.

Week 11: Duke @ Miami

This one could get a little tasty.

We mentioned the influx of talent at Miami this offseason. The recruitment drive was led by the controversial acquisition of Darian Mensah, the latest high-profile quarterback to head to Hard Rock Stadium for a payday and a run at a National Championship.

Originally at Tulane, Mensah spent last season at Duke, helping the Blue Devils to their first outright ACC title since 1962. Despite agreeing to return to Durham for 2026 and signing an NIL deal to do so, Mensah still jumped into the portal - sparking a messy divorce as he forced through a move to South Florida.

Blue Devil fans won’t forget this in a hurry. Duke is a school looking to better fund their football program, and Mensah was the crown jewel on a talented and improving roster. The nature of the departure, which included not-so-subtle accusations of tampering, means that this game will be eagerly anticipated in North Carolina.

Miami should have the talent to emerge victorious in this one. But Duke head coach Manny Diaz also has this game circled on the calendar each year following his firing by the’ Canes back in 2021. Hell hath no fury like a Blue Devil scorned; Mario Cristobal will be very wary of a late-season upset.

Week 12: Stanford @ Cal - The Big Game

The uninitiated may wonder why I’ve chosen two programs with one winning season between them this decade. But despite the relative anonymity of both the Cal and Stanford football programs in recent years, their rivalry game is one of the best in the sport.

First played in 1892, the Cardinal and Golden Bears have fought - sometimes literally - on the gridiron 127 times. Future US President Herbert Hoover organised the first matchup, where 20,000 people showed up despite only half that number of tickets being sold.

These two proud schools are situated just an hour apart, and to say they do not like each other is an understatement. Both elite seats of learning, there’s more than just a trophy made from an old axe on the line - west coast bragging rights and intra-family pride lie at the heart of this conflict.

There have been countless iconic games in this series, but 1982 stands out amongst the rest. ‘The Play’, where California executed a controversial five-lateral kick-return as time expired, is still the subject of heated debate to this day - and the series record is 65-51-11 or 66-50-11 to Stanford, depending on which side you fall.

2026 is unlikely to determine if Cal or Stanford wins a conference title or makes the playoffs. But both schools have new head coaches, and the Bears bring back sophomore QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who might be the most exciting quarterback in college football this year.

If you do tune in, stay until the end; if Cal wins, you’ll get to witness one of the most bizarre and tense handoffs of a rivalry trophy in the sport. Sometimes football is more than just a game, even if you’re smart enough to go to one of the best universities in the world.