ACC unveils 7-year football slate for new 17-team league - ESPN

The ACC revealed its new seven-year football scheduling model as a 17-team league with new members Cal, Stanford and SMU on Monday, featuring 16 protected matchups that will go into effect starting with the 2024 season.

The league will continue to play eight conference games without divisions. All 17 teams will play each other at least twice over the next seven seasons — once at home and once on the road. The 14 current ACC teams will play a total of three times each in California through 2030, and none will travel to California in back-to-back seasons.

In a change from the current 3-3-5 scheduling model, which the ACC adopted for this season, not every school has the same number of protected rivalry games. Some schools have three; the majority have two; Clemson has one; Georgia Tech and Louisville have zero.

Eleven of the 16 protected games have been retained from the current model. Miami-Virginia Tech and NC State-Wake Forest are restored from the previous divisional format, while Cal, Stanford and SMU will all play each other.

The annual protected matchups are: Boston College-Syracuse, Boston College-Pitt, Syracuse-Pitt, North Carolina-Virginia, North Carolina-Duke, North Carolina-NC State, NC State-Wake Forest, NC State-Duke, Duke-Wake Forest, Virginia Tech-Virginia, Florida State-Clemson, Miami-Florida State, Miami-Virginia Tech, Stanford-Cal, Stanford-SMU, and Cal-SMU.

«Throughout the entire scheduling model process, the membership was incredibly thoughtful and purposeful in building a creative, flexible and aggressive conference scheduling model while keeping the student-athlete experience at the forefront,» ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement. «The excitement and anticipation for our teams, alumni