ACC Football: Week 1 - We Never Stop

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That time of year has arrived—time to put the beach chairs away and get ready for some college football. For the next three months, we will focus on the comings and goings of the ACC. Week 1 will feature 16 games, and two of those will be Top 25 matchups. Let’s dive in and see how the league looks as the season gets started.

In the polls leading into Week 1, the ACC has three teams ranked. In the AP Top 25, Clemson is fourth with four first-place votes. Miami is at ten, and SMU is at 16. In the US LBM Coaches Poll, Clemson is at 6 with two first-place votes, Miami is at 10, and SMU is at 16. The league will have five teams playing against ranked teams. Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech. This is the most in conference history. The previous high was four in Week 1 of the 1982 & 1997 seasons.

The ACC will be the only league to have games played through the Thursday-Sunday window this weekend. It marks the sixth time in conference history that this has happened.. The other years are 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Week 1 will also feature seven games against Power 4 opponents and Notre Dame. No other league in the country can make that claim. The Labor Day night game between TCU and North Carolina will mark the 16th straight year that an ACC team will play on the holiday. Since 2005, that number has gone to 19, since the tradition began with Florida State meeting Miami

The ACC has beefed up its non-conference schedule this season and will play 26 games versus other Power 4 schools and ND. That’s the most in all of college football. The conference will also play 35 games against teams that appeared in bowl games last season, including eight games against teams that were a part of last year’s College Football Playoff.

The Clemson Tigers will begin the season as the preseason favorite in the ACC. They finished last season as the league’s conference title holders after ending the season with a 10-4 overall, and a 7-1 league record. By winning the league championship, the Tigers made their seventh trip to the playoffs. They were named on 167 ballots. Miami got seven first-place votes, Florida State got four. SMU and Georgia Tech are on two, and Virginia Tech is on one.

The two games of interest are #9 LSU vs #4 Clemson. LSU leads the all-time series with a 3-1 record. The last time these two played each other was back in 2019. This game will feature two of the 14 winningest programs in FBS history. LSU, with 815 wins, is good for 12th all-time. Clemson, with 808, is good for 13 all-time. For Clemson, this will be the first non-conference home game vs an AP Top 10 opponent since October 2013, a 24-22 win over the Fighting Irish. A season ago, LSU was 1-3 vs Top 25 teams.

The other big early-season game is #6 Notre Dame vs #10 Miami in Coral Gables. The Irish lead the all-time series with a 17-8-1 record. The last time they met was in 2017, with Miami winning 41-8. Carson Beck, who transferred in from Georgia, is the new Hurricanes QB. ND will also have a new quarterback in redshirt-freshman CJ Carr. Carr has only played in one game and has yet to throw a pass at the college level. Beck takes control of an offense that was really good in 2024. Under offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, the Caines were #1 in the country in both yards per game and points per game.

From now until the end of the regular season, we will be here to give you the information on the Atlantic Coast Conference.