Pitt and every other school in the ACC has one last chance this season to grab a division championship in football.
The ACC announced Tuesday a significantly modified scheduling model that will run at least from 2023 to 2026. The main point is that the Coastal and Atlantic divisions will disappear after this season. The structure was adopted by ACC athletic directors and faculty athletic representatives.
A special one-hour edition of The Huddle will air tonight on @accnetwork at 7 pm ET to discuss the new scheduling format! https://t.co/YipOuGCGji
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) June 28, 2022
The 3-5-5 scheduling model will give each school three annual opponents. In Pitt’s case, that will be former Big East rivals Boston College, Syracuse and Virginia Tech. Plus, teams will face the other 10 conference teams twice during the four-year cycle — once at home and once on the road.
Within those four seasons, the result will be each team facing all 13 conference members at least once at home and once on the road.
Pitt’s 2023 conference schedule will include road games at Duke, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest and home contests with North Carolina, Boston College, Florida State (the Seminoles’ first visit to Pittsburgh since 2013) and Louisville. The large gap between Florida State’s visits to Pittsburgh is one of the reasons conference officials sought to modify the scheduling procedure.
Pitt will play Clemson, which has won six of the past seven ACC championships, at Heinz Field in 2025 and on the road in Death Valley in 2026.
With the elimination of divisions, all 14 schools will compete in one league, starting in 2023. The top two teams based on conference winning percentage will compete in the Subway ACC Football Championship Game on the first Saturday in December at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. After the NCAA enacted legislation in May, a conference can determine its football championship game participants as it sees fit.
“The future ACC football scheduling model provides significant enhancements for our schools and conference, with the most important being our student-athletes having the opportunity to play every school both home and away over a four-year period,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D, said in a statement. “We appreciate the thoughtful discussions within our membership, including the head football coaches and athletic directors. In the end, it was clear this model is in the best interest of our student-athletes, programs and fans, at this time.”
The three primary partners for each ACC team are as follows:
Boston College: Miami, Pitt, Syracuse
Clemson: Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State
Duke: North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest
Florida State: Clemson, Miami, Syracuse
Georgia Tech: Clemson, Louisville, Wake Forest
Louisville: Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia
Miami: Boston College, Florida State, Louisville
North Carolina: Duke, NC State, Virginia
NC State: Clemson, Duke, North Carolina
Pitt: Boston College, Syracuse, Virginia Tech
Syracuse: Boston College, Florida State, Pitt
Virginia: Louisville, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Pitt, Virginia, Wake Forest
Wake Forest: Duke, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech
