After much speculation about the direction the ACC would go as a conference in terms of scheduling for this fall, the conference came to and announced a decision on Wednesday regarding the 2020 season on Wednesday afternoon. As expected, there will be some drastic changes to the Tar Heels’ schedule, with all four out-of-conference games appearing as if they will be wiped off the schedule.
The conference will now go with a 10 conference game + 1 out-of-conference game model for this season in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Games that were previously scheduled that will remain on the schedule and the same locations are as follows: vs. NC State, vs. Virginia Tech, @Boston College, @Duke, @Miami and @Virginia. Coastal division opponents Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh have been dropped from the Tar Heels original conference slate for this season, two teams the Tar Heels probably like their chances of beating this season.
The addition to the Tar Heels conference slate are home games against Syracuse, Wake Forest and 2020 ACC member Notre Dame and a road trip to Tallahassee to play Florida State. The Tar Heels are lucky to avoid the likes of both Clemson and Louisville, the teams many had picked to finish 1-2 in the ACC Atlantic.
The out-of-conference opponent is set to be named later for all 15 teams that will be a part of the conference this season, including the Tar Heels. Whoever the Tar Heels play will have to play them in the state of North Carolina, meaning they can travel to any team within the state if they want to go on the road or welcome in any opponent from outside the state for a game in Kenan or in a neutral location. Rumors are swirling that there has been discussion between Carolina and Auburn in an attempt to move the previously scheduled Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game to Charlotte’s Bank of America, but to this point there has yet to be anything confirmed.
The ACC championship game is set to take place in Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium, the normal yearly site of the conference’s championship game, on either December 12th or December 19th. The divisions in the ACC will be thrown out for this season, meaning the two teams with the top conference winning percentage will meet for the ACC title this season.
As of right now, no dates for the games announced have been put in place, but there are rumors going around that the conference may be looking to release those sometime next week. We will have more on this breaking story as we receive new information right here on the Heel Tough Blog.
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