CLEMSON FOOTBALL

ACC announces 2013 football schedule

ACC announces 2013 football schedule


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GREENSBORO, N.C.--The 2013 Atlantic Coast Conference football schedule released Monday by Commissioner John Swofford is a slate which is the largest in league history, incorporating new league members Pittsburgh and Syracuse into the 14-team ACC, and it may also be one of the most ambitious in the league’s 61-year history.

Ambitious because conference members are playing 11 games against non-conference opponents that finished the 2012 football season ranked in the nation’s Top 25, nine games with non-conference teams ranked in the final AP Top Ten, including contests against each of the top four teams in the USA Today’s final poll. Nine games are against teams projected by ESPN in its Early Top 10 for the 2013 season.

"The 2013 ACC Football schedule showcases some tremendous matchups this year as our league is arguably playing the toughest nonconference schedule in the country," said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. "This is an exciting year as we look forward to welcoming Pitt and Syracuse into the ACC. Both teams are opening league play at home, with Florida State at Pitt on Labor Day Monday Night and in its first ACC game, Clemson at Syracuse in the Carrier Dome."

No other BCS Automatic Qualifier conferences will play more than eight non-conference games against 2012 Top 25 foes and no more than four games against 2012 Top 10 non-conference opponents.

When Florida State (8th) and Clemson (9th), each ranked in the final USA Today Top 10, are included in the schedule, ACC teams will face eight of the final Top 10 teams in the Coaches poll.

The Conference will again enjoy national exposure on Labor Day Monday, as Pitt, in its first ACC football game, hosts defending ACC champion Florida State at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa., in a nationally-televised prime-time contest on ESPN. The game, which will have an 8 pm (ET) kickoff, will nationally showcase a pair of opponents who have not met on the gridiron in 30 years. The Seminoles last ventured to Pittsburgh in 1983. The game will mark the sixth time the Seminoles have appeared on the ACC’s Labor Day Monday Night contest.

In all, the schedule is comprised of 113 games and incorporates new conference members Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Syracuse will compete in the Atlantic Division and will play its first official ACC game against Clemson at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse on Oct. 5. Pitt will compete in the ACC’s Coastal Division. All ACC teams will face eight conference opponents.

The schedule includes 56 regular-season conference match-ups over a span of 14 weeks and is capped off with the Ninth Annual Dr Pepper Atlantic Coast Conference Football Championship Game, which returns to Charlotte, N.C. this year and will be played on Saturday, Dec. 7 in Bank of America Stadium.

ACC teams will face 56 games against 48 nonconference opponents which had a combined winning percentage of .558 in 2012--by far the highest of any of the BCS AQ Conferences--including 43 games against FBS opponents who won .566 percent of their games last fall, also the highest.

From the final 2012 USA Today poll, ACC teams will face national champion Alabama (Virginia Tech), No. 2-ranked Oregon (Virginia), No. 3-ranked Notre Dame (Pitt) and No. 4-ranked Georgia (Georgia Tech, Clemson), as well as No. 7 South Carolina (North Carolina, Clemson) and No. 10 Florida (Miami, Florida State).

Twenty-three of the league’s 56 nonconference games (41 percent) are against 17 teams that earned bowl berths in 2012, again the most of any AQ league.

Including games against the eight ACC teams which earned bowl bids in 2012, no ACC team plays fewer than five opponents who went to bowl games last fall, with Virginia facing the most with eight followed by Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt and Wake Forest with seven each.

Adding in North Carolina (8-4) and Miami (7-5), no ACC school will play fewer than six teams with six or more wins, including Virginia which will face a league-high 10 opponents followed by Georgia Tech and Pitt, which will each face nine foes who had six or more wins in 2012.

ACC teams will also play nine non-conference games against six teams selected by ESPN.com in its early preseason Top 25 including matches with projected top-ranked Alabama (Virginia Tech), fifth-ranked Oregon (Virginia), sixth-ranked Georgia (Clemson and Georgia Tech), seventh-ranked Florida (Miami and Florida State), ninth-ranked Notre Dame (Pitt) and 10th-ranked South Carolina (North Carolina and Clemson).

ACC schools will play a total of 11 non-conference games against teams tabbed by ESPN.com in the early preseason Top 25 as Syracuse will also face Northwestern (projected to be 24th) and Wake Forest will play at Vanderbilt (projected to be 25th). Clemson is ranked 11th and Florida State 16th in the most recent ESPN Preseason Top 25.

Nonconference opponents who earned bowl bids this past season include Alabama, Ball State, BYU (2 games with the ACC), Central Michigan, East Carolina (3 games), Florida (2 games), Georgia (2 games), Louisiana Monroe, Navy (2 games), Nevada, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oregon, Southern California, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and West Virginia.

In all, the ACC will play five games nationally-televised by ESPN on Thursday night beginning with North Carolina travelling to South Carolina (Aug. 29) for the first Thursday night game of the year on ESPN. NC State then hosts Clemson on Thursday night (Sept. 19) followed by Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech (Sept. 26); Miami at North Carolina (Oct. 17) and Georgia Tech at Clemson (Nov. 14).

The league will also play two games nationally-televised Friday games, with Boston College hosting and Wake Forest on Sept. 6, a game which will have an 8 p.m. kickoff and will be televised by ESPN or ESPN2; and Pittsburgh hosting Miami on Thanksgiving Friday, Nov. 29, in a game which will be televised by ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, with the game time to be determined at a later date.


CLEMSON

Aug. 31 GEORGIA

Sept. 7 SOUTH CAROLINA STATE

Sept. 14 OPEN

Sept. 19 at NC State (Thursday), ESPN

Sept. 28 WAKE FOREST

Oct. 5 at Syracuse

Oct. 12 BOSTON COLLEGE

Oct. 19 FLORIDA STATE

Oct. 26 at Maryland

Nov. 2 at Virginia

Nov. 9 OPEN

Nov. 14 GEORGIA TECH (Thursday), ESPN

Nov. 23 THE CITADEL

Nov. 30 at South Carolina

2013 ACC COMPOSITE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE WEEK-BY-WEEK

Thursday, August 29

North Carolina at South Carolina, ESPN

Presbyterian at Wake Forest

Friday, August 30

Florida Atlantic at Miami

Saturday, August 31

Villanova at Boston College

Georgia at Clemson

NC Central at Duke

Elon at Georgia Tech

Florida International at Maryland

Louisiana Tech at NC State

Penn State at Syracuse

MetLife Stadium, The Meadowlands,

East Rutherford, N.J.

BYU at Virginia

Alabama vs. Virginia Tech

Chick-fil-A Kickoff

Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Ga.

Monday, September 2

Florida State at Pittsburgh, ESPN, 8 pm

Friday, September 6

Wake Forest at Boston College, ESPN or ESPN2

Saturday, September 7

South Carolina State at Clemson

Duke at Memphis

Old Dominion at Maryland

Florida at Miami

Middle Tennessee at North Carolina

Richmond at NC State

Syracuse at Northwestern

Oregon at Virginia

Western Carolina at Virginia Tech

Saturday, September 14

Boston College at Southern California

Georgia Tech at Duke

Nevada at Florida State

Maryland at Connecticut

New Mexico at Pittsburgh

Wagner at Syracuse

Virginia Tech at East Carolina

Louisiana-Monroe at Wake Forest

Thursday, September 19

Clemson at NC State, ESPN

Saturday, September 21

Pittsburgh at Duke

Bethune-Cookman at Florida State

North Carolina at Georgia Tech

West Virginia at Maryland

M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, Md.

Savannah State at Miami

Tulane at Syracuse

VMI at Virginia

Marshall at Virginia Tech

Wake Forest at Army

Thursday, September 26

Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech, ESPN

Saturday, September 28

Florida State at Boston College

Wake Forest at Clemson

Troy at Duke

Miami at South Florida

East Carolina at North Carolina

Central Michigan at NC State

Virginia at Pittsburgh

Saturday, October 5

Army at Boston College

Clemson at Syracuse

Maryland at Florida State

Georgia Tech at Miami

North Carolina at Virginia Tech

NC State at Wake Forest

Ball State at Virginia

Saturday, October 12

Boston College at Clemson

Navy at Duke

Georgia Tech at BYU

Virginia at Maryland

Syracuse at NC State

Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech

Thursday, October 17

Miami at North Carolina, ESPN

Saturday, October 19

Florida State at Clemson

Duke at Virginia

Syracuse at Georgia Tech

Maryland at Wake Forest

Old Dominion at Pittsburgh

Saturday, October 26

Boston College at North Carolina

Clemson at Maryland

Duke at Virginia Tech

NC State at Florida State

Georgia Tech at Virginia

Wake Forest at Miami

Pittsburgh at Navy

Saturday, November 2

Virginia Tech at Boston College

Clemson at Virginia

Miami at Florida State

Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech

North Carolina at NC State

Wake Forest at Syracuse

Saturday, November 9

Boston College at New Mexico State

NC State at Duke

Florida State at Wake Forest

Syracuse at Maryland

Virginia Tech at Miami

Virginia at North Carolina

Notre Dame at Pittsburgh

Thursday, November 14

Georgia Tech at Clemson, ESPN

Saturday, November 16

NC State at Boston College

Miami at Duke

Syracuse at Florida State

Maryland at Virginia Tech

North Carolina at Pittsburgh

Saturday, November 23

Boston College at Maryland

The Citadel at Clemson

Duke at Wake Forest

Idaho at Florida State

Alabama A&M at Georgia Tech

Virginia at Miami

Old Dominion at North Carolina

East Carolina at NC State

Pittsburgh at Syracuse

Friday, November 29

Miami at Pittsburgh, ABC, ESPN or ESPN2

Saturday, November 30

Boston College at Syracuse

Clemson at South Carolina

Duke at North Carolina

Florida State at Florida

Georgia at Georgia Tech

Maryland at NC State

Virginia Tech at Virginia

Wake Forest at Vanderbilt

Saturday, December 7

Dr Pepper ACC Championship Game

Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC

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Post your comments!
Subject (Replies: 28) Author
spacer Front Page Story: ACC announces 2013 football schedule
TigerNet News®
spacer this schedule was truly worth waiting for***
franc1968®
spacer That'll work...***
SOLOS®
spacer I think Syracuse will be their first conference game
Bryanttiger®
spacer Yeah, they'll come out swinging. Might only lose by 20.***
TheProdigal
spacer maybe we can get one of their players to say...
franc1968®
spacer National Champs.
ClemsonTiger06
spacer I think they'll lose to UGA, SC, or both.
TheProdigal
spacer SEC! SEC! SEC!***
franc1968®
spacer We just need to remain undefeated like we are now.***
Razzmatazz
spacer Is there any way Clemson finishes worse than 7-1 in ACC?***
TheProdigal
spacer tough stretch = FSU, at MD , at Virginia - 3 in a row
tigertrain®
spacer Re: I think Syracuse will be their first conference game
92TigerJohn
spacer Nat Champs if the guys buy in & show up - 2 Th nites
FLTiger87
spacer with all of the Thursday games and open dates, there are
Iwantthe80sback®
spacer Take up hunting***
PenthouseTiger
spacer or just shoot some ##### & coots***
FLTiger87
spacer Re: Take up hunting***
hleapha
spacer That's a beautiful schedule
PenthouseTiger
spacer Couldn't agree more!***
Scann1282
spacer You really could not ask for better. Open dates before GT
Caddie
spacer FSU has an open date the week before playing Clemson***
BigCUFan®
spacer We kinda do too
PenthouseTiger
spacer While I agree that BC took a step backwards....
BigCUFan®
spacer We play BC. Prefer this over an open date.***
OhEightLee
spacer Two open dates perfectly placed before the Thurs games
hleapha
spacer 100% pleased with this schedule.***
OhEightLee
spacer Thursday Night Games Are Terrible!!!***
jba6ch®
spacer Open date before GT & cupcake before SCar. I like that.***
Razzmatazz