ACC ADs Vote in Favor of New CFB Schedule Format Featuring 9 Conference Games

The ACC will join the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 and play nine conference football games in future seasons.

The league announced Monday that its athletic directors voted in favor of future regular-season schedules that include nine conference games and at least 10 games against Power 4 foes.

“This positions the ACC as one of only two leagues committed to having every team annually play a minimum of 10 games against Power 4 teams,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement.

“There will be additional discussions and more details to be determined, but today’s decision showcases the commitment and leadership of our ADs in balancing what is best for strengthening the conference and their respective programs.”

This comes after the SEC announced last month it will implement a nine-game conference schedule starting with the 2026 campaign. It also requires its schools to play at least one additional game against a Power 4 opponent or Notre Dame.

Part of the SEC’s scheduling change will also feature three locked-in opponents for each school that can rotate every four years.

On 3’s Chris Low reported on what those locked-in games will look like in the immediate future:

It remains to be seen whether the ACC will take a similar approach, and Phillips’ statement highlighted the number of decisions that still need to be made. But moving to nine conference games was key to creating more uniformity across the various conferences with the future format of the College Football Playoff still up in the air.

The Big Ten and the Big 12 already play nine conference games and would surely want the other power conferences to do the same if there are going to be a number of at-large bids up for grabs in future CFP formats.

After all, an additional league game means half of the teams in the entire conference will have another loss. Those losses will hurt their resumes and decrease the overall strength of schedule for other teams in the league looking for at-large bids.

That could be particularly important if a 5-11 model is eventually put in place that gives five automatic bids to conference champions and 11 at-large bids.

As for the ACC, it had just two teams in the inaugural 12-team CFP last season. It likely would have only had one if SMU had defeated Clemson in the conference title game, but both teams made the field just to lose in the first round.

While the Tigers are just 1-3 this season and don’t seem like a realistic contender, the conference appears to have more CFP threats as a whole with Miami, Florida State and Georgia Tech all off to strong starts.

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