NC State Gets Caught in ACC’s Strange 2026 Scheduling Twist
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RALEIGH — NC State made the trip to Tampa, Florida, to play in the 2025 Gasparilla Bowl earlier in the week, but preparations for the 2026 season are already well underway for the Wolfpack and the ACC. The Pack found out where it fell in the unique scheduling situation for the conference in 2026 on Tuesday.
While the ACC announced a transition to a nine-game conference slate to align with the other power conferences, the league went about the change in a more unique and somewhat confusing manner. 12 of the league's members will play a nine-game schedule, while five remain on the eight-game format from years past.
Where does NC State fall in the scheduling logjam?
NC State is one of the 12 ACC members that will play nine games within the league. The Wolfpack is slated for five home games and four road trips, one of which is the notable Brazil game against Virginia announced earlier in November. California, Duke, Wake Forest, Louisville and Syracuse will visit Carter-Finley Stadium in 2026.
The Pack makes trips to Florida State, Stanford and North Carolina for the road schedule, plus it will be the designated road team in the Brazil matchup against the Cavaliers. In 2025, Dave Doeren and NC State took advantage of a schedule that lacked many trips outside of the state, but the Pack won't have the same luxury in the coming campaign.
Back in September, the SEC made the switch to a nine-game schedule. The fallout of that change began to manifest in December, as numerous schools from that conference pulled out of scheduled matchups against other power conference opponents. NC State found itself in the rubble of those collapsing agreements, as Georgia canceled a home-and-home with the Wolfpack.
When the SEC increased its schedule to nine conference games, Doeren was asked about his feelings about that policy change.
"I know that we're in a different situation than Clemson and Georgia Tech and some of these teams that have an automatic SEC rivalry game. And so they have a different argument than I do," Doeren said in September. "The year that we had COVID, and all we played was conference games except for one. I love that. I love playing as many conference games as we can. But there's two sides to it, you know? And there's 17 teams that have a stake in how we do this."
NC State is still scheduled to play non-conference matchups at home against Richmond and Appalachian State, while a road trip to Vanderbilt also remains on the calendar.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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