The ACC has announced a new schedule model for football that includes an extra ninth conference game a season.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips had a comment on the news release.
“Today’s announcement of our 2026 football league opponents is another significant and intentional step forward for ACC Football,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “Transitioning to a nine-game conference schedule strengthens our competitive framework, aligns us with the other Power Four conferences and provides greater consistency for our student-athletes, coaches and fans. This phased approach reflects our commitment to competitive equity, scheduling flexibility and delivering a premier football product across all 17 institutions.”
Per the new scheduling model, 2026 will be a “transition year” due to some teams having contractual obligations that will lead to nine teams having that ninth conference game and five remaining with eight. With there being 17 teams in the ACC, still not everyone will have to play nine games, and there will be a rotating of teams to “ensure competitiveness balance over multi-year cycles.”
Along with an extra conference game, there will be an in-conference rule to play 10 Power four teams each season. So, a team with nine conference games will have to schedule one non-conference p4 team, and teams with eight conference games will have to schedule two p4 non-conference games.
For Virginia Tech, this means they will play nine ACC games, and there have been some changes in who those teams will be. Tech will have four home games and five away games. Their ACC home games include Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Stanford, and Virginia. Meanwhile, their ACC road games include Boston College, California, Clemson, Miami, and SMU.
Virginia Tech’s newly added game is their road trip to SMU, which will be the first matchup as ACC foes since the Mustangs joined the ACC in 2024.
There was also a switch in games as the Hokies will take on Stanford at home, which replaced a previously scheduled NC State. This will be the first time the Cardinals take the trip to Lane Stadium in their history.
With the new scheduling model in place, this will also mean a change to Tech’s non-conference schedule, which includes VMI, ODU, Maryland, and JMU. The game against Maryland takes care of the P4 game requirement, but one of the games against teams in the Commonwealth of Virginia will have to be cancelled to reduce the schedule back to 12 games.
The official ACC schedule with dates for Virginia Tech will be announced at a later date.
