ACC coach drops major hint about Clemson football’s 2027 season-opening game
Clemson football’s 2027 schedule won’t be formally released until January. When it is, though, don’t be surprised if the Tigers are opening up in Raleigh.
During a Wednesday podcast appearance at ACC Kickoff, N.C. State football coach Dave Doeren said his team is opening the 2027 season against Clemson.
Since Clemson doesn’t have a non-conference game scheduled for Week 1 next year, like it has the past three seasons, the Tigers’ 2027 season opener will be an ACC game and hasn’t been officially announced by the conference.
Doeren mentioned the Clemson game while answering an unrelated question about the quirks of playing a Week 0 game and opening the season against a conference opponent. N.C. State is set to do both of those things in 2026 when it visits Virginia on Saturday, Aug. 29 in an ACC game originally scheduled to be played in Brazil.
“Next year, we open with Clemson, so we’ll have back-to-back openers this way,” Doeren said on the Triangle-based “OG Podcast.”
He didn’t specify whether it was a home or a road game.
All schedules are subject to change, of course. But Doeren’s comments track with an email that was made public during Clemson’s lawsuit against the ACC in June 2024. In that exchange, ACC commissioner of football Michael Strickland mentioned to Clemson Athletic Director Graham Neff that Clemson football was set to open the 2027 season against N.C. State on Labor Day Night 2027 (Monday, Sept. 6, 2027).
N.C. State was also one of the four schools Clemson was scheduled to play on the road in 2027, per the ACC’s long-term schedules through 2030 released before the league moved from eight to nine football conference games.
Clemson’s 2027 schedule currently includes home games against FCS Wofford (Sept. 11), Notre Dame (Oct. 30), Georgia State (Nov. 6) and rival South Carolina (Nov. 26/27). The Tigers will also play eight ACC games (four home, four away).
Since Clemson doesn’t have a non-conference game scheduled for Week 0 or Week 1 in 2027, playing an ACC game that week seems like the most likely outcome.
The Tigers are no stranger to playing on Labor Day or opening the season against a league opponent. Clemson played Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Labor Day to open the 2022 season and opened the 2023 season on Labor Day at Duke.
This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 3:33 PM.
