2026 ACC college football preview, predictions, top transfers and more - ESPN

Life in the ACC certainly isn't boring. In the past year alone, the conference has produced a long and awkward CFP rankings battle, an irate affiliate member, a thrilling national title game run, the strangest tiebreaker result imaginable, an out-of-nowhere 11-win season, the most disappointing team in the country, an epic pro-to-college face-plant, 18 of the 38 best games of the 2025 season, the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft (indirectly) and the most awkward possible move to nine-game conference schedules.

That sets a high bar for the 2026 season, but we have quite a bit to look forward to. We get another mammoth Miami-Notre Dame game (though we have to wait until November for it this time), redemption efforts from both Clemson's Dabo Swinney and North Carolina's Bill Belichick (and, kind of, Florida State's Mike Norvell), James Franklin's debut at Virginia Tech, and a potentially very bitter game between the defending conference champs and the contender that stole their star QB.

Leading up to the 2026 season, we're previewing every conference in college football.
Pac-12 | MWC | American | Sun Belt
Conference USA | MAC

And even if Miami actually delivers for the entire regular season for once and claims one of the spots in the ACC title game, the battle for the other spot could be ridiculously wild. More than half of the conference's teams can convince themselves they're a contender, and someone unexpected will probably be right.

This isn't the best power conference, but it might be the silliest. (I mean that at least 70% as a compliment.) Let's preview the ACC! And because Notre Dame is still sort of a member, we'll preview the Fighting Irish here, too.

A 17-team conference with eight-game conference schedules was bound