Preseason favorites Clemson and Florida State rank among the toughest schedules in the conference
• 9 min read
Having an eight-game conference schedule with what is now a 17-team ACC has set up for a notable variance in schedule strength. When looking ahead to who might win the ACC or find success in conference play, a great place to start is how the draw breaks with each team’s league schedule.
That is why it’s notable that two of our top four teams in the ACC strength of schedule rankings are the two teams expected to compete for the title in 2024. If Florida State and Clemson do meet in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte at the end of the year, they will do so having navigating among the more difficult paths in the conference, highlighted by their own annual rivalry and multiple high-profile nonconference games.
On the flip side, some of the more manageable schedules come from teams that have been tabbed as potential dark horses to disrupt the Florida State-Clemson status quo. That’s where it’s important to note the opportunity that awaits Virginia Tech, SMU and NC State here. All three teams have a roster capable of contending for a conference title and carry schedules that we rank among the five most favorable in the ACC.
As a whole, the ACC boasts that it has the most challenging nonconference schedule in the country. No other league has more games (27) against power-conference opponents, and one-third of those games are scheduled against teams that finished ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll last year. Those nonconference games did end up tipping the scale for some tiebreakers throughout the rankings, but so did the presence, or absence, of the projected top teams in the conference draw.
2024 ACC Strength of Schedule Rankings
