Breaking down the 2025 conference schedule.
Conference Schedule Summary
For the 2024-2025 season, the ACC will once again feature a 20-game conference schedule for the sixth straight season. This comes despite the conference expansion to 18 teams with the addition of Cal, SMU, and Stanford. The schedule will be broken down as follows:
- 4 games versus each school’s two current partners (home and away). For the Jackets, their current partners are Notre Dame and Clemson
- 2 games versus one repeat opponent (home and away). For the 2025 season, the Jacket’s repeat opponent will be Boston College.
- 14 games versus the remainder of the conference (7 home-only and 7 away-only).
Tech will get their conference schedule started in early December when they head to Chapel Hill on Saturday December 7 to take on North Carolina. After a brief return to non-conference play, they will welcome Duke to town on Saturday December 21 for the home conference opener. Tech will then close out 2024 with a New Year’s Eve showdown at home versus Notre Dame. In January, Tech will host Boston College, Clemson, and Virginia Tech and will hit the road to take on Syracuse, SMU, Florida St, and Notre Dame. In February, the Jackets will have home matchups versus Louisville, Stanford, and Cal and will travel to Clemson, Virginia, Boston College, and Pittsburgh. They will close out the regular season in March with home games against NC State and Miami and a road trip to Wake Forest.
Games Tech Will Likely be Favored
I broke the schedule down into three categories: games that Tech should be favored in, games that will most likely be a toss up, and games that Tech will be underdogs. I see seven games in the category of games that Tech will likely be favored, being the home matchups versus Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Stanford, Boston College, and Cal as well as the return trip to Boston College and a trip to Florida State.
California
16th in ACC preseason poll
Cal, who is entering their first season in the ACC will be entering their second season under head coach Mark Madsen, hoping to build on the progress from last season. The new look Golden Bears will be bringing in 10 transfers as well as a handful of freshman and will not resemble much of the team which went 13-19 last season. A few of the biggest transfer names to watch are Stanford transfer Andrej Stojakovic, UTSA transfer Christian Tucker, and Air Force transfer Rytis Petraitis.
Boston College
18th in ACC preseason poll
Boston College went a respectable 20-16 last season, but lost all five of their top scorers. The Eagles will rely on some of the younger players from a season ago as well as a handful of transfers that head coach Earl Grant brought in.
Stanford
17th in ACC preseason poll
Stanford will be entering their first season in the ACC and their first season under a new head coach, having moved on from Jerod Haase and bringing in Kyle Smith. The Cardinals will be led by Maxime Raynaud, who lead the team in both points and rebounds last season with 16 ppg and 10 rpg. As is expected with a coaching change, the Cardinals brought in a handful of transfers to complement Raynaud as well as a few other returning players.
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Notre Dame
10th in ACC preseason poll
Notre Dame went 13-20 last season but finished the year strong, winning 6 of their final 10 games. Much of Notre Dame’s team returns for the 2025 campaign, including sophomore Markus Burton who averaged 18 ppg last season. Another key returner will be Braeden Shrewsberry, the son of head coach Micah Shrewsberry.
Virginia Tech
14th in ACC preseason poll
This season will likely be a rebuilding year for the Hokies as they lost 7 of their top 8 scorers. The best returning player is Mylyjael Poteat who averaged 6 ppg last season. Head coach Mike Young brought in five transfers, the most impactful being Hysier Miller, who averaged 16 ppg last season at Temple. The Hokies also added 4 star freshman forward Ryan Jones.
Florida State
Picked 15th in ACC preseason poll
Florida State finisehd 17-16 last season and isn’t projected to be much better this season. The Seminoles will return Jamir Watkins (16 ppg) after he tested the NBA draft waters, but decided to come back for another season. However, Watkins won’t recognize much of the roster he is coming back to as 10 players moved on from the Seminoles in the offseason.
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Toss Up Games
In the category of toss up games, I see some road games against the bottom half of the conference as well as some home games against some of the stronger teams in the conference. In this category, I am including home games versus Louisville, Miami, NC State, and Clemson as well as road matchups versus Pittsburgh, Virginia, SMU, Syracuse and Notre Dame.
Louisville
9th in ACC preseason poll
Louisville has moved on from head coach Kenny Payne and brought in Pat Kelsey from College of Charleston. The Louisville roster has been completely overhauled, bringing in 12 D1 transfers, the biggest being Terrence Edwards Jr. out of JMU, Chucky Hepburn out of Wisconsin, and Koren Johnson out of Washington. Louisville is considered by many to be a sneaky pick to compete at the top of the conference, but they will have to prove themselves with so many changes.
NC State
Picked 8th in ACC preseason poll
The NC State Wolfpack were one of the wildest stories in college basketball a season ago as they went from being a mediocre team for most of the season to getting hot at the perfect time and making a run all the way to the Final Four. NC State does return a few significant contributors including Jayden Taylor, but lost 3 double digit scorers to graduation. To replace them, head coach Kevin Keatts brought in a handful of impactful transfers including Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (13 ppg at Louisville), Marcus Hill (21 ppg at Bowling Green), and Mike James (13 ppg at Louisville). Also in the mix will be Paul McNeil, a 4-star freshman wing.
Clemson
Picked 4th in ACC preseason poll
Clemson enters the 2025 season coming off a trip to the Elite Eight a year ago. Leading scorer PJ Hall left for the NBA but other double digit scorers Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin return. Cincinnati transfer Viktor Lakhin will be the biggest newcomer.
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Miami
Picked 6th in ACC preseason poll
Miami was disappointing a season ago, finishing 15-17, but will look to improve this year. Leading the returning players is Matthew Cleveland (14 ppg) and Nijel Pack (13 ppg), but a big loss will be Norchad Omier who averaged a double double with 17 ppg and 10 rpg. Miami brought in numerous impact transfers including Lynn Kidd, Jalen Blackmon, and Brandon Johnson, but the biggest impact may be felt by five-star Jalil Bethea, one of the top freshman in the country.
Pittsburgh
Picked 7th in ACC preseason poll
Jeff Capel has done a good job at Pittsburgh, including a 22-11 campaign last season. Pitt will have some key players returning such as Ishmael Leggett and Jaland Lowe but lose key contributors Blake Hinson (19 ppg) and Carlton Carrington (14 ppg). Transfers Cameron Corhen and Damian Dunn are expected to make a big impact. The losses will be hard to overcome for the Panthers, but Capel has shown he is a capable coach and there is still plenty of talent on this roster.
Virginia
Picked 5th in ACC preseason poll
The news of head coach Tony Bennett’s sudden retirement shook the college basketball world last week and it’s going to be interesting to see how this team performs without him this season. The Cavaliers have a mix of returning players and departures, the biggest returner being Isaac McKneely (12 ppg) and the biggest loss being Reece Beekman (14 ppg) who was so impactful for the Cavaliers over the last four seasons. On the transfer side, Virginia brought in TJ Power, a former 5-star recruit from Duke and sophomore Dai Dai Ames from Kansas State.
SMU
Picked 13th in ACC preseason poll
Much like Stanford, SMU enters their first season in the ACC and first season under a new head coach, Andy Enfield. Returning for SMU is Chuck Harris, who averaged 13 ppg, but transferring out is Zhuric Phelps, who led the team in scoring. Enfield will bring in Kevin Miller out of Wake Forest (16 ppg) and Matt Cross out of UMass (15 ppg).
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Syracuse
Picked 11th in ACC preseason poll
The Jim Boeheim era is over in Syracuse and Adrian Autry will be looking to build on a 20-12 season last year in his first season as head coach. Syracuse did lose some big contributors including Judah Mintz who averaged 19 ppg, but left for the NBA. Returning is JJ Starling, who averaged 13 ppg and Chris Bell (12 ppg). Syracuse is bringing in some impact transfers including big men Jyare Davis (17 ppg at Delaware) and Eddie Lampkin (11 ppg at Colorado) and guards Jaquan Carlos (10 ppg at Hofstra) and Lucas Taylor (15 ppg at Georgia State). Syracuse also brings in five-star freshman Donnie Freeman, who will surely be one of the best freshman in the conference, if not the country.
Games Tech Will Likely be Underdogs
Rounding out the rest of the schedule is the elite teams in the conference. This includes a home matchup versus Duke and road games against North Carolina, Wake Forest, and Clemson.
Wake Forest
Picked 3rd in ACC preseason poll
While Wake Forest has competed in the last few seasons, this is the year they are expected to take that massive leap forward, as is seen in their projection by the ACC media to finish 3rd in the conference. Returning guard Hunter Sallis (18 ppg last year) will be the leader of this team and will be supported by returners Cameron Hildreth (14 ppg) and Efton Reid (10 ppg). Wake did lose Andrew Carr and Kevin Miller, but brought in Omaha Biliew and Ty-Laur Johnson to replace them.
Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
North Carolina
Picked 2nd in ACC preseason poll
North Carolina and Duke are the two clear leaders of the conference, both ranking inside the top 10 in the preseason AP poll. The Tar Heels will be led by RJ Davis (21 ppg), one of the top returning players in the country. To support Davis, the Tar Heels brought in impact transfers Cade Tyson (16 ppg at Belmont) and Ven-Allen Lubin (12 ppg at Vanderbilt) while adding multiple five-star freshmen in Ian Jackson and Drake Powell.
Duke
Picked 1st in ACC preseason poll
Duke lost their four top scorers from last season, but that may not matter as the story of this team all year is going to be generational talent Cooper Flagg, the #1 recruit in the country. In addition to Flagg, Duke brings in a staggering three other five star players in Kon Knueppel, Isaiah Evans, and Khaman Maluach. The Blue Devils also brought in a few impact transfers, including Sion James (14 ppg at Tulane), Maliq Brown (10 ppg at Syracuse), and Mason Gillis (7 ppg at Purdue). The Blue Devils may have some early struggles as they learn to play together, but there’s few teams in the country that will have more talent on opening night.