ACC announces new plans, scheduling model for 2020 football season

The ACC unveiled new plans and a new scheduling model that it hopes will allow its 2020 football season to be played in the fall.

First, the basics:

• The season’s first games will take place the week of Sept. 7-12
• The 2020 scheduling model includes 11 games (10 plus one: 10 conference and one non-conference)
• All non-conference game opponents, selected by the respective school, must be played in the home state of the ACC institution, and all non-conference opponents must meet the medical protocol requirements as agreed upon by the ACC (this means the Battle for the Governor’s Cup should be back on)
• The 11 games will be played over at least 13 weeks with each team having two open dates
• There will be one division
• Notre Dame will also play a 10-game conference schedule and be eligible to compete in the 2020 ACC Football Championship Game
• All television revenue for the 2020 season, including Notre Dame’s home games broadcast by NBC, will be shared equally by all 15 institutions
• The ACC Football Championship Game will be played on either December 12 or 19 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will feature the top two teams based upon highest conference-game winning percentage
• All 15 teams will continue to be part of the ACC’s bowl selection process; should Notre Dame win the ACC Football Championship Game they would be eligible for the Orange Bowl, if not selected as a College Football Playoff semifinal team
• The 2020 ACC Football week-by-week schedule and television selections will be released in the future

And now, the scheduling model:

If you don’t want to take the time to sort through the image, here’s what Louisville’s updated 2020 football schedule looks like now:

Home Games: Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

Road Games: Notre Dame, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Virginia

The most notable takeaway here is obviously that Louisville is no longer scheduled to face Clemson. The only way that meeting could happen is if the two played in the conference championship game.

Aside from that, Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame all on the schedule with the first three of those games (and the Kentucky game, presumably) being played at home? That feels like pretty close to best case scenario.

I’ll meet you all on the ACC logo in mid-December. It’s not a field storm though. We do it every conference championship game.