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ACC Football vs COVID Pandemic 2020

What’s the score so far versus the biggest opponent?

Boston College v Duke
Boston College Head Coach Jeff Hafley pulls down his mask to talk to an official. Bad Coach!
Photo by Nell Redmond-Pool/Getty Images

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?