Clemson Tigers Officially Release 2026 Football Schedule

Last week ended the 2025-26 college football season, and the Clemson Tigers are looking into the 2026-27 season to start fresh.

The ACC revealed all of its conference teams’ schedules ahead of the new season, and head coach Dabo Swinney will have his hands full with plenty of tough tests to both open and end the season.

Below is the full schedule of who Clemson will play each week in the 2026 regular reason.

Sept. 5 - @ LSU

Sept. 12 - vs. Georgia Southern

Sept. 19 - vs. North Carolina

Sept. 25 (Fri.) - vs. California

Oct. 3 - vs. Miami (FL)

Oct. 17 - vs. Charleston Southern

Oct. 24 - vs. Virginia Tech

Oct. 31 - @ Florida State

Nov. 6 OR Nov. 7 - @ Syracuse

Nov. 14 - vs. Georgia Tech

Nov. 21 - @ Duke

Nov. 28 - vs. South Carolina

Takeaways

Clemson’s Early Slate is Loaded

The Tigers will be tested next season, and very early.

Clemson opened its season finishing off the home-and-home series with the LSU Tigers. That game will be the debut of Lane Kiffin with the program, as well as No. 1 transfer player Sam Leavitt, who transferred from Arizona State to the Bayou Bengals.

To open ACC play, Clemson then welcomes head coach Bill Belichick and the North Carolina Tar Heels. In his first season as head coach, North Carolina finished 4-8, and starting strong will be key. A Friday matchup with California on the West Coast is also a difficult test.

Then, beginning in October, the Tigers will play the Miami Hurricanes, who lost in the National Championship to Indiana last week. Especially with how the parity has shifted within the ACC beginning last season, all of those games could give Swinney and his team tough times, despite being at home in three of his first five games in 2026.

The Tigers Could Have Two Games Not On Saturday, But a Primetime Friday

Clemson’s matchup with Cal will be on Friday night, which is something the ACC typically does with one specific game. The Tigers had one Friday night game last year in November, when they defeated Louisville.

There’s another game that could be flexed into a Friday night game. At the beginning of November, Clemson will play Syracuse on either Nov. 6, a Friday, or the following day on the Saturday. That would be a rematch of last season, when Fran Brown’s team blew out the Tigers at home to take away almost all hope of making a College Football Playoff appearance.

It’s a changing landscape within college sports, and now the Tigers will see more of that over the 2026 season. Going from that Sept. 5 date in California to a home contest against the Miami Hurricanes will be important to watch in terms of preparation.

Swinney’s ACC Schedule Could Be One Of The Most Difficult in the Conference

Obviously, things will change, but looking at the ACC teams that performed well last season, the Tigers are facing top competition.

The big ones to look at are Miami, who, again, was one of the final two teams in the country. Georgia Tech was the frontrunner to win the ACC Championship for a majority of the season before falling in the final week. Duke, who closes ACC play for the Tigers, is the current champion and will defend its belt for the first time on the football field.

Add in some interesting schools that could make noise, like Virginia Tech in its first season under James Franklin. Teams like North Carolina and Florida State have the capability to turn things around and make matchups frisky. Cal bring back freshman standout Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and hired Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi, being an important home game for the Golden Bears to win on that Friday.

We haven’t even mentioned Fran Brown yet, who forced upsets over his time as the Orange head coach.

There is a lot that we don’t know, obviously. However, one thing is for certain when looking at this Clemson football schedule entering 2026.

It’s going to have a lot of tight contests, and it will be a lot of fun.