The ACC joined the rest of the P4 by announcing a move to a 9-game conference schedule in the future (believed to be 2027). Along with the addition of one conference game, every school will play a minimum
of 10 games against P4 opponents.
Due to the odd number of schools, one ACC school will play 8 conference games and two P4 games. There is speculation that either Stanford or Clemson could do this with a game against Notre Dame substituting for the 9th ACC game. No word on how the standings and tie-breakers will work in this scenario. It also means an unbalance home/road slate in conference play, so some years we could see Syracuse play 7 home games
For Syracuse, this could save the gaps in current future schedules, but it’s going to get a bit tricky to make a schedule that’s balanced. The Orange are scheduled to play Penn State and UConn in 2027 and 2028. Since both of those are road games in 2027, Syracuse needs a P4 opponent at home.
The 2029 schedule currently has Notre Dame, Morgan State and Toledo so a P4 opponent would fill that spot. With John Wildhack saying Syracuse wanted to add more games with B10 opponents, Rutgers could be an option in 2028/29. Unfortunately a number of schools are already committed to 3 non-conference games, so the Orange need to get to work quickly.
