GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference announced its 2022 football schedule Monday night during a two-hour special The Huddle: 2022 Football Schedule Reveal, exclusively on ACC Network.
The 70th season of ACC Football will feature 56 league games and 56 non-conference contests. Each team will play eight league contests, which includes six division games, one permanent non-division opponent and one rotating opponent from the opposite division. The 2022 schedule includes a minimum of one open date for each team, and at least one conference contest is scheduled each week, except for Week Zero.
“As we look ahead to the 2022 ACC football season, there is tremendous excitement within the conference and our 14 football programs,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “As usual, the schedule features incredibly competitive league contests as well as arguably the toughest collection of non-conference opponents. We look forward to watching our extraordinary student-athletes compete for championships and appreciate the work of our television partners in making every game accessible to our fans.”
Challenging Non-Conference Slate
• The ACC’s non-conference schedule continues to be the most difficult in the country. In addition to 21 games against Power 5 opponents, the ACC will play eight non-conference games against teams ranked in the final 2021 Associated Press Top 25 poll.
• All 14 ACC teams play at least one Power 5 non-conference opponent, while seven schools – Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Pitt and Syracuse – play two.
• ACC teams will play 27 games against opponents that appeared in a bowl game last year.
• ACC teams will play nine non-conference games against teams in ESPN’s 2022 Way-Too-Early Top 25.
Season Kicks Off in Week Zero
• The season gets underway on Saturday, Aug. 27, when North Carolina hosts Florida A&M and Florida State hosts Duquesne in Week Zero. It marks the first August season opener for the league since 2019.
Labor Day Weekend – Five Days of Football
• The ACC will be featured throughout the Labor Day Weekend with 12 games over a five-day span, Sept. 1-5. No other league plays across all five days in Week One. This is the fourth time in the last six years the ACC has played over five consecutive days in Week One.
• The Labor Day weekend begins on Thursday, Sept. 1, with both of last year’s ACC division champions in action. ACC and Coastal Division Champion Pitt hosts West Virginia at Heinz Field, and Atlantic Division champion Wake Forest opens against VMI in Winston-Salem. On Friday, Sept. 2, Duke plays host to Temple. Virginia Tech at Old Dominion will be played either Sept. 2 or Sept. 3.
• Saturday’s slate includes the first league matchup of the year – Louisville at Syracuse, and the first of four games against an Alliance member school – Boston College vs. Rutgers (Big Ten). Other games on Sept. 3 include Bethune-Cookman at Miami, North Carolina at Appalachian State, NC State at East Carolina and Richmond at Virginia.
• On Sunday, Sept. 4, Florida State travels to New Orleans to face LSU at the Caesars Superdome. The 2022 season opener is the first of two games between the teams over the next two seasons. In 2023, the teams will play in Orlando, Florida.
• In the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game on Labor Day Monday, Georgia Tech hosts Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Tigers, who beat Iowa State in the Cheez-It Bowl, won 10 games for the 11th consecutive season in 2021.
Games Against Notre Dame
• ACC teams will play four non-conference games against Notre Dame in 2022:
- Notre Dame at North Carolina, Sept. 24 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
- Notre Dame at Syracuse, Oct. 29 (Syracuse, New York)
- Clemson at Notre Dame, Nov. 5 (Notre Dame, Indiana)
- Boston College at Notre Dame, Nov. 19 (Notre Dame, Indiana)
Games Against the Alliance (Big Ten & Pac-12)
• ACC teams will play four non-conference games against Alliance teams (all from the Big Ten)
- Rutgers at Boston College, Sept. 3 (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts)
- Duke at Northwestern, Sept. 10 (Evanston, Illinois)
- Virginia at Illinois, Sept. 10 (Champaign, Illinois)
- Purdue at Syracuse, Sept. 17 (Syracuse, New York)
• The ACC has postseason bowl agreements in place to play the Pac-12 in both the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl and the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. In 2022, the ACC will play a Big Ten team in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium and the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Subway ACC Football Championship Game
• The 2022 Subway ACC Football Championship Game will be played Dec. 3 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, and feature the winner of the Atlantic Division vs. the winner of the Coastal Division. The ACC and the Charlotte Sports Foundation have an agreement in place to keep the championship game in Charlotte through the 2030 season.
ACC Bowl Agreements
• The ACC is in the ninth year of a 12-year agreement with the Capital One Orange Bowl, which will host an ACC team – either its champion or next available team – in all years when the Orange Bowl is not a semifinal site for the College Football Playoff. The opponent will be the highest ranked available team from the SEC, Big Ten or Notre Dame.
• The ACC’s current bowl lineup through 2025 includes the Cheez-It Bowl, Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Wasabi Fenway Bowl, Military Bowl Presented by Peraton, New Era Pinstripe Bowl, San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl, TaxSlayer Gator Bowl and Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. In addition, the ACC will send a team to the Outback Bowl if the league’s opponent in a non-semifinal Capital One Orange Bowl is from the Big Ten. The league will also send a team to either the Gasparilla Bowl or Birmingham Bowl on an annual basis.
About the ACC
• The Atlantic Coast Conference, now in its 69th year of competition and 15 members strong, has long enjoyed the reputation as one of the strongest and most competitive intercollegiate conferences in the nation. ACC members Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest continue to build upon the cornerstones on which the league was founded in 1953 with a consistent balance of academics, athletics and integrity. The ACC currently sponsors 27 NCAA sports – 14 for women and 13 for men – with member institutions located in 10 states. Women’s gymnastics will become the league’s 28th sponsored sport in the 2023-24 academic year. In August 2019, ESPN and the ACC partnered to launch ACC Network (ACCN), a 24/7 national network dedicated to ACC sports and league-wide original programming. For more information, visit theACC.com and follow @theACC on Twitter and on Facebook (facebook.com/theACC).