Following news on Thursday that the SEC will officially adopt a 9-game league schedule, the ACC will be the only power conference in major college football playing an 8-game schedule during the 2026 season.
The industry expectation is that will soon change.
A report from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger on Thursday stated that ACC leaders have signaled their intention to move to a 9-game league schedule if and when the SEC does. CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello also reported Thursday afternoon, following the official announcement from the SEC, that “the thinking is the ACC will follow suit.”
One complication exists on the ACC front.
The league has an uneven number of members.
When the SEC moves to a 9-game schedule after this season, it will adopt a “3+6” model that secures 3 annual protected rivalries for each team and rotating matchups for the other 6 games. Every team in the league will play every other team in the league at least once every 2 years. And every team will travel to every other team at least once every 4 years.
In the 17-team ACC, the math doesn’t work. Some have speculated that an additional member would need to be added to the league, or an agreement would need to be worked out with football independent Notre Dame to make games against the Irish count toward conference standings.
It’s not immediately clear what change or changes the ACC would be looking to implement in order to remain in lockstep with the SEC.
But at ACC Media Days in July, league commissioner Jim Phillips said ACC leaders had discussed moving forward with a 9-game schedule while acknowledging the challenges doing so would pose.
“If the SEC ends up going to nine and maybe we end up going to nine, I think there are a few challenges,” Phillips said. “Those rivalry games that we really enjoy, I think that the fans really enjoy, I think some of those go away. And it now focuses more on everybody’s conference schedule than it is a mix of conference schedule and nonconference.
“Also, I think it’s a challenge for us with an odd number of schools at 17 and how you exactly work that out. So, that in itself, there’s some difficulty there. I continue to talk to Greg (Sankey), and I talk to Tony (Petitti) and Brett (Yormark) all the time. We have frequent conversations. I mean, no one’s kind of moving in a vacuum on this. We’re exchanging thoughts there.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
