Clemson football’s 2025 schedule is set. See the games, dates and opponents
Clemson football’s 2025 schedule is set.
The ACC announced the Tigers’ full 12-game schedule for this fall during a Monday night TV special, with kickoff times to be determined. Here’s the schedule:
- Aug. 30: vs. LSU
- Sept. 6: vs. Troy
- Sept. 13: at Georgia Tech
- Sept. 20: vs. Syracuse
- Sept. 27: OPEN
- Oct. 4: at UNC
- Oct. 11: at Boston College
- Oct. 18: vs. SMU
- Oct. 25: OPEN
- Nov. 1: vs. Duke
- Nov. 8: vs. Florida State
- Nov. 14: at Louisville (Friday game)
- Nov. 22: vs. Furman
- Nov. 29: at South Carolina
In a news release announcing its 2025 schedule, Clemson also said it plans to host its annual spring game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, April 5 at 1 p.m. (TV channel TBA). The Tigers are scheduled to start 2025 spring practice on Friday, Feb. 28.
The Tigers went 10-4 and 7-1 in the ACC in 2024, winning the ACC championship game over SMU and qualifying for the first ever 12-team College Football Playoff. Clemson was the No. 12 seed and lost a first-round game at No. 5 Texas.
Coach Dabo Swinney’s team returns the majority of its starters this year, including senior quarterback Cade Klubnik, and is widely viewed as a preseason top 10 team nationally. The Tigers will likely be favored to win the ACC in 2025.
ACC teams will compete in a divisionless setup for the third straight year in 2025, with the top two teams based on conference winning percentage meeting in the league title game on Saturday, Dec. 6 at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.
Here are more notes on Clemson’s 2025 schedule:
Clemson Tigers 2025 schedule analysis
Clemson and LSU have played four times in the postseason, including in the 2019 national championship game. They’ll meet for the first time ever in the regular season on Aug. 30, which should be a preseason top 25 matchup (if not higher) and one of the most anticipated games on the Week 1 slate. LSU is entering its fourth season under former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly. The Tigers went 9-4 last year and return starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, setting up one heck of a quarterback battle with Klubnik. Winner gets to claim Death Valley?
The Tigers have a tricky ACC opener: On the road at Georgia Tech in Week 4. Coach Brent Key’s Yellow Jackets have a knack for upsetting ranked teams (last year’s Miami team could tell you as much) and will host the Tigers at their home stadium in non-pandemic environment for the first time since 2018. The teams last played a 2022 season opener at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
A blockbuster coaching matchup looms on Oct. 4, when Swinney and Clemson travel to play against UNC and new coach Bill Belichick in Chapel Hill. It’ll be only the second time in college football history that a coach with multiple FBS national titles as a head coach (Swinney, two) faces another coach with multiple Super Bowl titles as a head coach (Belichick, six). The only other instance was in the 1993 Blockbuster Bowl when Stanford’s Bill Walsh (three Super Bowls) faced Penn State’s Joe Paterno (two national titles).
Clemson hosts SMU on Oct. 18 in a rematch of last year’s ACC championship game, which the Tigers won on a walk-off 56-yard field goal by kicker Nolan Hauser. That is Clemson’s only home game during the month of October.
The Tigers played exclusively Saturday games last year but close their ACC schedule at Louisville on Friday, Nov. 14. It’ll be Clemson’s first Friday regular season game in four years and fourth overall since 2016 (2016 at Boston College, 2017 and 2021 at Syracuse). The Tigers were famously upset as the No. 2 team in the country in that 2017 game at Syracuse. UL knocked off Clemson in Death Valley last season and will be looking for a repeat of that in bourbon country.
Clemson has multiple open dates (Week 5, Week 9) for the second season in a row and the sixth time since 2013 (2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2024 seasons).
Four teams on Clemson’s schedule have won their most recent meeting with the Tigers: LSU (2019), Duke (2023), Louisville (2024) and South Carolina (2024). Clemson is 24-10 under Swinney (.705) when it plays a “revenge game” against a team it lost to in the most recent series meeting.
With regular-season games set against LSU and South Carolina, Clemson will play multiple SEC teams in a season for the 19th time in the last 20 years.
The Tigers are also set to play four head coaches for the first time: Gerad Parker (Troy), Fran Brown (Syracuse), Belichick (UNC) and Bill O’Brien (Boston College). Clemson is 52-9 (.852) when facing a coach for the first time since 2011.
Clemson has (quite memorably) lost back-to-back home games to in-state rival South Carolina. But the Tigers have won five straight road games against the Gamecocks from 2015-23. Clemson closes the season at USC this year and has a chance to win six straight at Williams-Brice Stadium for the first time since 1989-99. Coach Shane Beamer, returning QB LaNorris Sellers and a talented, physical SEC roster that went 9-4 last year will be standing in their way.
This story was originally published January 27, 2025 at 9:28 PM.
