On Monday evening, the Atlantic Coast Conference unveiled its new scheduling model for the 2024-2030 seasons, following the additions of Cal, Stanford, and SMU to the league.
All 17 teams will play each other at least twice over the next seven seasons, including 16 protected matchups. No school has more than three protected matchups while Georgia Tech and Louisville have none.
The ACC is sticking with its new division-less system, as the league’s top two teams by conference winning percentage will play for the championship on the first Saturday in December.
Next season, Virginia Tech will immediately travel to new ACC territory when it visits Stanford in Palo Alto. It will mark the program’s first ever regular season game in the state of California and the Pacific Time Zone as a whole. Tech’s only prior game in California was the 2002 San Francisco Bowl – a 20-13 win over Air Force.
The Hokies will also travel to Miami, Syracuse and Duke. They will host Virginia, Clemson, Boston College and Georgia Tech.
Tech also plays Vanderbilt, Rutgers, Marshall, and Old Dominion in its 2024 non-conference schedule.
New road trips to Palo Alto, Coral Gables and upstate New York mean that Tech will travel much further than anticipated in 2024. Before the new additions to the ACC, its furthest conference road trip next season was Pitt, and it wasn’t going to travel more than 600 miles. Now, it will embark on nearly 4,000 miles worth of travel just for conference play, with over 2,000 coming from the trip to Stanford alone.
Of 16 protected ACC matchups to be played annually, two include Tech: Miami and UVA. The Commonwealth Clash was never going to leave the picture, but the reinstallation of the Hurricanes as an annual rival for the Hokies seemingly rights a wrong after the matchup wasn’t protected under the ACC’s 3-5-5 model, which was implemented this season. Now, a once-massive rivalry will return to being played every season.
The Hokies will have to wait a few years before taking on the ACC’s other newcomers. They host Cal in 2025 before going out to Berkeley in 2026. In 2027, they make the trip to Dallas to take on SMU, who will come to Lane Stadium in 2028. Like California, Tech hasn’t played in Texas since 2002 – a 13-3 win over No. 19 Texas A&M.
Long-distance travel for the West Coast schools was taken into account in the new scheduling model, as Cal and Stanford will never have more than three east coast trips in a single season.
In a strange scenario that perfectly encapsulates conference realignment, Tech will play Cal and Stanford as many times as it plays North Carolina over the next seven seasons with three matchups each. In that same timespan, the Hokies will play SMU as many times as they play Florida State and Duke – two games apiece. Both the Blue Devils and Tar Heels were on Tech’s schedule in 2024 and 2026. While Duke remains on the 2024 schedule, the Hokies won’t play UNC until 2027.
All in all, in the next seven seasons the Hokies will play Miami and Virginia seven times; Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville and Pitt four times; Cal, Stanford, Syracuse, North Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest three times; and Duke, Boston College, SMU and Florida State twice.
The full 2024 ACC football schedule releases on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024 at 9 p.m. on the ACC Network.
Here’s the complete rundown of Tech’s ACC opponents from 2025-2030:
2025
- Home: Miami, Cal, Wake Forest, Louisville
- Away: Virginia, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State
- Home: Virginia, Georgia Tech, NC State, Pitt
- Away: Miami, Boston College, Cal, Clemson
- Home: Miami, Clemson, Stanford, Syracuse
- Away: Virginia, Louisville, North Carolina, SMU
- Home: Virginia, Florida State, Louisville, SMU
- Away: Miami, Pitt, Stanford, Wake Forest
- Home: Miami, Duke, North Carolina, Pitt
- Away: Virginia, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Syracuse
- Home: Virginia, Cal, NC State, Wake Forest
- Away: Miami, Clemson, North Carolina, Pitt
