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Everybody knew it would be a challenge to have college football - or even college, for that matter - while the COVID-19 pandemic was still on-going. Some conferences (which shall go unnamed but are headquartered to the West of Pittsburgh) at first didn’t even want to try, but when they saw the ACC succeeding, one of them recently changed its stance.
I write “succeeding”, but the fact of the matter is, it’s a close, hard-fought struggle. This Saturday will be the third weekend of ACC football. During that time the ACC originally had plans for 27 games and/or bye weeks. So far, 12 of those 27 have had to be modified, including half of this week’s games.
The contest between the Louisville Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Panthers was one of only three originally-scheduled matchups this week, along with Florida State versus Miami and Georgia Tech at Syracuse. Notre Dame versus Wake Forest has now been pushed back to December 12th because of the pandemic, and the other three games are all revised from the original 11-game ACC football schedule.
So, if you’re keeping score at home, we might say it’s...
ACC 15, COVID 12
...roughly at the end of the first quarter. Here is the list of games which have been played, cancelled, replaced, or rescheduled so far:
2020 ACC Football, First 3 Weeks
| Original Schedule | Changes | Actual Schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Original Schedule | Changes | Actual Schedule |
| ACC WEEK 1 | ||
| UAB at Miami | UAB at Miami | |
| VMI at Virginia | replaced | Virginia OPEN |
| Ohio at Boston College | replaced | Boston College OPEN |
| Clemson at Wake Forest | Clemson at Wake Forest | |
| Duke at Notre Dame | Duke at Notre Dame | |
| Georgia Tech at Florida St | Georgia Tech at Florida St | |
| W. Kentucky at Louisville | W. Kentucky at Louisville | |
| Syracuse at North Carolina | Syracuse at North Carolina | |
| NC State at Virginia Tech | rescheduled | NC State and Va Tech OPEN |
| Miami (OH) at Pitt | replaced | Austin Peay at Pitt |
| ACC WEEK 2 | ||
| Boston College at Duke | Boston College at Duke | |
| The Citadel at Clemson | The Citadel at Clemson | |
| Samford at Florida State | replaced | Florida State OPEN |
| UCF at Georgia Tech | UCF at Georgia Tech | |
| Miami at Louisville | Miami at Louisville | |
| Charlotte at North Carolina | cancelled | UNC OPEN |
| Wake Forest at NC State | Wake Forest at NC State | |
| W. Michigan at Notre Dame | replaced | USF at Notre Dame |
| Syracuse at Pitt | Syracuse at Pitt | |
| Virginia at Virginia Tech | rescheduled | Virginia and Va Tech OPEN |
| ACC WEEK 3 | ||
| Florida State at Miami | Florida State at Miami | |
| Georgia Tech at Syracuse | Georgia Tech at Syracuse | |
| Louisville at Pitt | Louisville at Pitt | |
| Notre Dame at Wake Forest | rescheduled | (Dec. 12th) |
| Duke and Virginia OPEN | rescheduled | Duke at Virginia |
| NC State and Va Tech OPEN | rescheduled | NC State at Virginia Tech |
| BC OPEN | replaced | Texas State at BC |
It’s still far from certain that the league and its teams will be able to complete all 11 games each this season. Perhaps we shouldn’t be amazed that 12 games have had to be changed, but that 15 did not?