Scheduling news: Opening ACC game announced for Clemson football team
Clemson football’s ACC opener is set.
The Tigers will start 2025 conference play with a road game against at Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Saturday, Sept. 13 the ACC announced on Friday.
The following week, Clemson will host Syracuse for its conference homer opener.. The Tigers will travel be North Carolina’s conference opener on Oct. 4. UNC is in the first season with Bill Belichick as its head coach.
According to Clemson, it will be just the second time in college football history a coach with multiple FBC national championships (Dabo Swinney) faces another multiple Super Bowl championships. Belichick won six Super Bowls as head coach with Patriots.
The only other time it happened when Stanford’s Bill Walsh faced Penn State’s Joe Paterno in the 1993 Blockbuster Bowl.
Ahead of its full schedule release next Monday, the ACC announced all of its Week 0 and Week 1 games on Thursday and the ACC openers for all 17 teams on Friday.
Thursday’s announcement didn’t change anything for the Tigers and coach Dabo Swinney. Clemson has long been scheduled to host LSU in a Week 1 game on Saturday, Aug. 30 at Memorial Stadium that should be one of the top non-conference games in the country that weekend. Kick time and TV channel are TBA.
But Friday’s ACC opener announcement provided some new information. Clemson now has dates set for seven of its 12 regular-season football games this fall.
The Tigers were already scheduled to host LSU, Troy in Week 2 (Sept. 6) and FCS Furman in Week 13 (Nov. 22) before closing at rival South Carolina (Nov. 29).
As previously announced, Clemson’s four 2025 ACC home opponents are Syracuse, Duke, Florida State and SMU and its four 2025 ACC road opponents are Boston College, Louisville, North Carolina and Georgia Tech.
The Tigers went 10-4 (7-1 ACC) last year, won the ACC championship game against SMU and appeared in the first round of the 12-team College Football Playoff. Swinney’s team returns the majority of its starters, including senior quarterback Cade Klubnik, and is considered a preseason top 10 team by most national outlets.
The full 2025 ACC football schedule reveal show is scheduled for 9-11 p.m. next Monday (Jan. 27) on ACC Network. The first hour will also be broadcast on ESPN2.
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM.
