One of two changes to the 2026 Syracuse football schedule has been checked off the list

With all due respect to my local professional colleagues at the ACC offices in Uptown Charlotte, why does it feel like that these wacky scheduling and tiebreaker scenarios could only happen in the one Power 4 conference with an odd number of teams that is always going to conflict the math?

Trying to have 17 teams play nine conference games each season does not work mathematically, in addition to having to find openings among other P4 teams (or ACC problem child Notre Dame) to fulfill that part of the + 1 scheduling requirement covering 10 of the 12 regular season games. Simply put, it gets too complicated.

That is why 2026 will serve as the transitional season for the ACC's new scheduling model first announced in September, and now updated with each team's opponents for the upcoming season.

Syracuse football will now make two trips to North Carolina next season

In the upcoming transitional season, 12 of the 17 schools will play nine ACC games, while five teams - Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina, will not.

Syracuse's original eight ACC games were announced in 2024 when Cal, SMU, and Stanford joined the league, and those home/away games remain unchanged (see below). The ACC added a fifth road game for the Orange, at North Carolina State (for the second time in three seasons), in addition to a previously listed game at North Carolina.

What the ACC did not do, that should reexamined when the 9 + 1 takes effect in 2027, is split-up the Boston College and Pittsburgh games with one played home, and one away each season, instead of the current format of both games home or away in a particular season.

Also remember with an odd number of 17 teams, one school will only play eight league games in a season, or 8 + 2, and it will be interesting how that designation rotates.

The ACC will also have to figure that one outlier's schedule into how it calculates a new conference tiebreaker procedure for the football championship game, and that will be announced sometime before the 2026 season.

The other change that has to be made to the 2026 schedule

With Syracuse joining Cal, Duke, Louisville, Miami, N.C. State, Pittsburgh, SMU, Stanford, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest going right to nine games, and with the previously announced four non-conference games for SU, one team has to come off the 2026 schedule.

Syracuse will host Notre Dame as its '+1' game, adding to an attractive home slate of ACC games. and is also slated to host FCS member New Hampshire in the opening game September 5 and Toledo on September 19, with a road game at Connecticut scheduled for October 3.

The Toledo series was announced by SU last April before the ACC made its changes, and will likely be the game moved, perhaps to 2028 which has an opening, and would be the season before the Orange are set to play at Toledo in 2029 as part of the original agreement.

With one non-ACC game having to be removed, the current 13 games listed for 2026 Syracuse with ACC dates/times to be determined (home games in all CAPS):

September 5 - NEW HAMPSHIRE

September 19 - TOLEDO

October 3 - at Connecticut

CALIFORNIA

CLEMSON

LOUISVILLE

NOTRE DAME

SMU

at Boston College

at North Carolina

at North Carolina State

at Pittsburgh

at Virginia

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