The Syracuse Orange, along with the ACC and ESPN, announced that Syracuse will start the 2027 college football season in Toronto. The game, scheduled for Week 0 on August 28 or August 29, will take place at BMO Field as the Orange play a conference game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The game will be the first NCAA college football game played at BMO Field, and it will broadcast on either ABC or ESPN.
BMO Field is the home of Toronto FC in Major League Soccer and the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian
Football League. Most notably, BMO Field is one of two Canadian Stadiums that will host games for the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer. Because of the World Cup, BMO Field recently completed upgrades that cost $157.9 million, according to the City of Toronto.
“Opening the 2027 season in Toronto is an exciting opportunity for Syracuse football and our fans,” said outgoing Syracuse Athletic Director John Wildhack, who will retire on July 1 this year. “Partnering with Wake Forest and ESPN Events for this game created the unique chance for us to headline Week 0 while providing a destination game for fans to visit a world-class city just four hours from campus.”
In addition to being a conference game, the game will count as a Wake Forest home game. The Orange and Demon Deacons were not set to play each other in 2027. However, due to the updated ACC scheduling regulations which mandated that most teams play nine conference opponents, the addition of the game in Toronto serves as the ninth unannounced conference opponent for each team in 2027.
The game will be the 14th all-time meeting between Syracuse and Wake Forest. The teams last played in 2023, where an Orange team led by interim head coach Nunzio Campanile earned its sixth and final win of the year with a 35-31 win at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Syracuse is set to host Boston College, Pitt, NC State and Florida State at the JMA Wireless Dome in 2027. The Orange hit the road for games against Georgia Tech, Stanford, Louisville and Virginia Tech that year as well.
The Orange also have two of its three non-conference games for 2027 set. Syracuse is scheduled to travel to Penn State on September 4, the week after the Toronto game. The Orange also have a road game scheduled at UConn on November 6.
The Toronto game is the fourth international game that the ACC has scheduled over the next two years. It is also the fourth international between ACC opponents since 2016. NC State and Virginia open the 2026 season in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. UNC will play TCU in Ireland in 2026, while Pitt will also play Wisconsin in Ireland in 2027.
