The 2024 ACC Football schedule was released a few days ago. As we do each year, we’re going to tell you what like about it, and later what we don’t like about the schedule.
Georgia Tech vs Florida State – August 24, 2024
ACC Football is going to be front and center on August 24. Georgia Tech and Florida State as a matchup is intriguing enough. Georgia Tech is coming off their first winning season since 2018, and returning arguably the best QB in the ACC with Haynes King. Florida State is the defending ACC Champion and coming off a 13-0 regular season. Now the attention for the game is magnified times 10 because ESPN Gameday will be there and it’s by far the biggest game of the day in Week 0. The nation will be watching Georgia Tech vs FSU and ESPN Football Analysts like Kirk Herbstreit vs FSU fans.
Labor Day Weekend National TV Games
I said this last year, and it remains true.
“ESPN always gets criticized for not showcasing the ACC vs the other conferences they televise. Most of it deserved criticism too, but not on Labor Day weekend. This is the one weekend of the football season that ESPN treats the ACC right.”
TCU vs Stanford is a national TV Friday Night game. (Wow Stanford counts too this year). Saturday we have Georgia vs Clemson and Miami vs Florida. The Labor Day game is Florida State vs Boston College. That’s an ACC vs ACC matchup that’s the only game on that night.
Multiple BYE Weeks
Every single ACC team has at least 2 BYE Weeks. Georgia Tech and Florida State get 3. There isn’t an ACC team that plays more than 8 weeks in a row. Only Stanford and NC State play more than 6 weeks in ra ow. I like how the schedule has worked in that regard to give teams multiple breaks during the season.
The Week Before ACC/SEC Rivalry Week
The SEC has been masterful in giving their teams Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, and South Carolina BYEs or soft OOC games in most seasons before playing their ACC Rivals Georgia Tech, Louisville, Florida State, and Clemson. This year the ACC did a better job of setting the ACC teams’ schedules. Clemson has the Citadel before South Carolina. Florida State has Charleston Southern before Florida. Georgia Tech faces NC State on Thursday night before their game with Georgia giving them a couple of days extra to prepare.
Only Louisville has a conference game in Pitt before Kentucky. While this won’t change the ACC football narrative by winning the games. The ACC went 7-5 against the SEC and it didn’t seem to matter at all, it will matter on a fanbase basis. Rivalry bragging rights always matter.
North Caroschool’shools round-robin schedule
In the previous division setup, several ACC rivalry games weren’t happening enough. I love that in 2024 Wake Forest, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Duke are all playing each other. This should create great regional interest, well-attended competitive games, and as I said previously in the ACC/SEC games lots of rival fan bragging rights.
The four schools should create some kind of North Carolina state championship award this season and in years the schedule works out where they all play each other.
