Item: The ACC released the 2021 football schedule Thursday morning, and for Syracuse, there are seven home games, two on Friday nights, and the continuation of an unusual scheduling pattern against three Atlantic Division rivals.
It’s back to the two-division format for the 14 ACC football teams in 2021, after Notre Dame became a conference member this past season out of necessity to comprise an 11-game schedule, and the top two teams in the standings, Clemson and the Irish, met in the ACC championship.
In order to get back to some sort of semblance of the alternating home/away game format for each Atlantic Division team, Syracuse will host Boston College and Wake Forest for a third straight year, and play at Louisville for the third consecutive season.
The non-conference Liberty home game was moved to a Friday night (September 24), joining the Clemson game also to be played on a Friday night (October 15) in the Dome. We all know what happened he last time the teams met on a Friday night in Syracuse (Oct. 17, 2017), a stunning 27-24 upset victory for the Orange, a rare Tigers regular season conference defeat.
The ‘Cuse travels to face Virginia Tech for the first time as an ACC member. SU last played in Blacksburg, Va. in 2003.
» Related: The ACC should make some adjustments to its divisions in football
Syracuse opens up on the road against a MAC opponent (Ohio) for the first time since playing at Western Michigan in 2018, and the other non-league games are against Big 10 opponent Rutgers and FCS member Albany.
Here is the complete schedule:
- September 4, at Ohio
- September 11, RUTGERS
- September 18, ALBANY
- September 24, LIBERTY (Friday)
- October 2, at Florida State
- October 9, WAKE FOREST
- October 15, CLEMSON (Friday)
- October 23, at Virginia Tech
- October 30, BOSTON COLLEGE
- November 6, (No Game)
- November 13, at Louisville
- November 20, at North Carolina State
- November 27, PITTSBURGH
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