ACC Announces Thursday & Friday Night Contests for 2024 Football Season
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – Ahead of the ACC Huddle: 2024 Football Schedule Release Show set for Wednesday, Jan. 24, from 5-7 p.m. ET on ACC Network and simulcast on ESPN2, the Atlantic Coast Conference unveiled Thursday and Friday night contests set throughout the 2024 season, with 14 games in primetime over the first 13 weeks of the season. Week 14 games may be announced at a later date.
Highlighting today’s announcement are Friday night conference matchups between Virginia Tech and Miami on Sept. 27 and Florida State at Duke on Oct. 18.
Boston College will play at Virginia Tech on Thursday, Oct. 17, as the Hokies will celebrate 30 years of ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime at Lane Stadium, while Stanford and Syracuse will meet on Friday, Sept. 20, as the Cardinal play their inaugural ACC contest in a game that will commemorate 44 years to the day since the Orange first hosted a game in what is now called the JMA Wireless Dome. The first game in the Dome was Sept. 20, 1980, as Syracuse hosted Miami (Ohio).
On Monday, the league announced the Week 1 Labor Day Weekend games, highlighted by Boston College at Florida State on Monday Night. It also noted the start of the 2024 college football season with the Week 0 opener in Ireland between Florida State and Georgia Tech on Aug. 24, with ESPN’s College GameDay Built by the Home Depot making its first trip outside of the United States.
ACC Thursday and Friday Night Football Games
• With intentionality in creating a schedule that ensured no school would play a Thursday night game on short rest, the ACC cooperatively worked with its schools and ESPN to adjust Thursday and Friday game dates to meet this objective.
• Over the first 13 weeks of the season, ACC teams will play in a combined 14 games on Thursday and Friday nights, which includes 15 different schools and contests hosted by a total of 11 different institutions.
• Week 1 of the season will kick off with a trio of Thursday night contests on Aug. 29, as North Carolina will travel to Minnesota, NC State will host Western Carolina, and Wake Forest will play at home versus North Carolina A&T. On Friday, Aug. 30, Duke will host Elon, while Stanford will make its debut as an ACC member versus TCU.
• In Week 2, SMU will host BYU for a non-conference matchup in Dallas on Friday, Sept. 6, while two weeks later, in Week 4, the Orange will host Stanford on Friday, Sept. 20, to commemorate 44 years of football in the Dome in upstate New York. The game will also mark Stanford’s first conference game as a member of the ACC.
• Friday night ACC play will continue in Week 5 with a conference showdown between Virginia Tech and Miami in Hard Rock Stadium on Sept. 27, while three weeks later, the Hokies will celebrate 30 years of Thursday night football inside Lane Stadium with a home contest versus Boston College on Oct. 17.
• Week 8 will also see a Friday night ACC showdown between Florida State and Duke in Durham, North Carolina, on Oct. 18.
• The following week, Week 9, will once again see back-to-back Thursday and Friday night ACC contests, as Pitt will host Syracuse on Oct. 24, followed by Louisville traveling to Boston College on Oct. 25.
• The next two Thursday and Friday night meetings will come in Week 11 and Week 13, as Wake Forest will host California for the first time on Friday, Nov. 8, while NC State and Georgia Tech will meet in Atlanta on Thursday, Nov. 21.
The ACC’s new schedule model for the 2024-2030 seasons, which was revealed exclusively on ACC Network in October, will continue with no divisions, feature 17 schools with the additions of Cal, SMU, and Stanford, and will increase the number of annual conference matchups from 56 to 68. Based on conference winning percentage, the top two teams will compete in the ACC Football Championship Game on the first Saturday in December at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The ACC Huddle: 2024 Football Schedule Release Show will announce the full 2024 ACC football schedule on Wednesday, Jan. 24, from 5-7 p.m. ET on ACC Network and simulcast on ESPN2.
