The ACC released its full schedule on Thursday, with Notre Dame hosting Duke in Week 1 on Sept. 12 in a unique setup that will feature the Irish playing a league slate for the first time.
Last week, the league announced it would play a 10-game conference schedule with one nonconference game and Notre Dame would be a part of it as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The release Thursday listed dates for all games, and most of the nonconference opponents all league teams would play.
Notre Dame will host Western Michigan in its lone nonconference game. That means the Irish will forgo their traditional matchup with Navy, which has been played annually since 1927. Notre Dame and Navy were initially scheduled to play in Dublin, Ireland, but the game was moved to Annapolis, Maryland, in June.
The wait is over.
More info » https://t.co/yJUXpEhokA pic.twitter.com/W3LJACMP8r
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) August 6, 2020
Because the ACC is requiring all nonconference games to be played in the respective teams’ home states, Notre Dame simply could not travel to play Navy to make the game happen.
Clemson, hoping to make it back to the national championship game, opens at Wake Forest. Its game at Notre Dame remains Nov. 7. After a bye, Clemson closes with ACC rival Florida State, Pitt and Virginia Tech to end the regular season.
The Tigers, unable to play their annual rivalry game against South Carolina because the SEC went with a 10-game league schedule, did not have a nonconference opponent listed, though that game is scheduled to be played Sept. 19.
The other three ACC teams with SEC rivals have their nonconference opponents set: Louisville will play Western Kentucky on Sept. 12, Florida State will play Samford on Sept. 19, and Georgia Tech will play UCF on Sept. 19. All three of those nonconference opponents were already on the 2020 schedule.
North Carolina also does not have a nonconference opponent yet, but that game is also listed to be played Sept. 19. Three of its previously scheduled nonconference opponents are out of the picture: Its game against Auburn was cancelled, UConn cancelled the entire 2020 season and its road game at UCF cannot happen because the league mandated all nonconference games be played in their respective home states. That leaves previously scheduled James Madison or another team as possibilities.
