The ACC released its football matchups for the 2026 season, officially a “transition year” for the move from eight league games to nine, which is to say that this is the most comical schedule ever conceived. Twelve teams will play nine conference games—NC State is among those—and five will play eight; everyone will play 10 games against power-conference competition in total.

NC State drew five home games this time around: Cal, Duke, Louisville, Syracuse, Wake Forest. The Wolfpack will travel to Florida State, UNC, and Stanford, and of course meet Virginia in Brazil, as is customary. Richmond, App State, and a trip to Vanderbilt round things out.

Beginning in 2027, 16 teams will play nine league games, and one will play eight. Seems there were too many important non-conference contracts to rip up to allow for the full move in 2026, which makes sense, of course—it just has the side effect of making the league schedule look ridiculous.

The good news here is there is simply no way that the 2026 schedule could possibly result in chaos and acrimony with like three teams going 6-2 and three teams going 7-2. No chance of that whatsoever! Gonna be fine, this whole thing.