It will be an interesting year for the ACC on the heels of a positive showing in the 2024 college football season. It made quite the impression by joining the Big Ten and the SEC as the only conferences to place multiple teams in the first 12-team College Football Playoff. Four ACC teams finished the year ranked in the AP Top 25 and two ACC players finished in the top-10 of Heisman Trophy voting, including finalist and former Miami quarterback Cam Ward.
Schools like North Carolina made an offseason splash by hiring Bill Belichick, who has never held a significant college coaching job. He did win six Super Bowls as coach of the NFL’s New England Patriots, though.
Now, we have a full glimpse at the ACC’s journey to repeating that success as the conference released its full schedule for the 2025 season on Monday night. So let’s now have a look at some of the biggest takeaways from the schedule reveal.
ACC can prove itself in Week 1
The first week of the 2025 college football season provides a huge opportunity for the ACC. The conference did place two teams in the College Football Playoff last season, but neither Clemson nor SMU made much of a splash once they got there, which sparked plenty of (largely unjustified) questions about the conference’s relative strength.
ACC schools will have every chance to silence those doubters in Week 1 with a huge slate of nonconference games. Seven ACC teams are scheduled to play a Power Four conference foe over Labor Day weekend.
Clemson hosts LSU in a battle between what could be two preseason top-10 teams. The same could be said for Miami’s home game against Notre Dame. Florida State will try to put a disastrous 2024 season behind it by opening 2025 against Alabama at home.
Those are the headliners, but there are plenty of crucial games beyond that. Georgia Tech travels to Colorado, Syracuse vs. Tennessee and Virginia Tech vs. South Carolina will be played at neutral sites and then the “Bill Belichick Era” gets underway with North Carolina hosting TCU. Almost all of these games involve — presumably — ranked teams. A strong showing by the ACC with such a difficult slate will go a long way towards improving the perception around the league.
Belichick gets a favorable first-year draw
Speaking of Belichick, he really could not have asked for a more favorable schedule in his first year with North Carolina. The Tar Heels are looking to battle back from a lackluster 6-7 year, which ended with the firing of longtime coach Mack Brown.
The Tar Heels only get six home games — including that season opener against TCU — but nine of their 12 games will be played in the state of North Carolina. One of their nonconference road games is at Charlotte, and the other is against a UCF team that went 4-8 in 2024.
North Carolina gets a bye before opening conference play at home against Clemson in Week 6. It also gets a bye before traveling cross country to Cal two weeks later. UNC won’t even have to cross state lines in any of its final three games at Wake Forest, at home against Duke and at NC State.
If Belichick is looking to make a first-year splash, this is the schedule to do it.
Bill Belichick’s North Carolina coaching staff, transfer class as Tar Heels build toward 2025 season
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SMU faces a tough path
SMU deservedly made the College Football Playoff after winning 11 games and falling just short of capturing the ACC crown in its first year with the conference, but the Mustangs were not able to kick doubts about their strength of schedule at any point in the year.
That will not be an issue next season. If SMU wants to repeat its breakout 2024 performance, it’s going to have to run the ACC gauntlent.
Rhett Lashlee’s squad has to play both Clemson and Miami in the latter half of the year after dodging both last regular season. The Mustangs also host a Syracuse team that won 10 games in 2024 and Louisville, which is coming off a 9-4 campaign.
The good news for SMU is that three of those four aforementioned games will be played within the friendly confines of Gerald J. Ford Stadium. SMU also gets a bye before closing the year versus Louisville and traveling to Cal.
Can Florida State bounce back?
Florida State’s 2024 season was an abject disaster best left in the past. With an eye turned towards the future, many are wondering: Do the Seminoles have what it takes to claw themselves back to respectability?
The 2025 squad will get a baptism by fire when it opens the 2025 season at home against Alabama, which went through its own sort of rut (by only winning nine games — the horror!) last season. A win against a likely preseason top-15 opponent would certainly set a positive tone for the rest of the year.
Once conference play begins, customary games against Miami (at home) and Clemson (on the road) await. Florida State faces a particularly brutal four-game stretch to end the year. Without benefit of a bye week, the Seminoles have to play at Clemson, host Virginia Tech, at NC State and then at Florida for their regular-season finale.
Clemson and Florida will almost assuredly be ranked that late into the year, while both Virginia Tech and NC State — a perennial borderline contender — are dark horse candidates to make an ACC run.
