2016 ACC Schedule Notes

* Why Ireland for the Georgia Tech-Boston College game, particularly since its a BC home game?  Well, the Eagles will have three non-conference home games, so they'll still have six games at Chestnut Hill with one vs. a regional rival (UConn), so for them it sounds like it will make financial sense.  On the TV side of things, this might be the only game that ESPN2 airs that day with the US Open as coverage last year started at 11am ET.  By starting this one at 7:30am ET, it should lead directly into tennis.  And lets be realistic: this is a game between two schools that both finished 3-9 in 2015.  While it is the opening week of the season and it is often littered with FBS vs. FCS games alongside some neutral site ones, it isn't a very desirable game for TV, but its better than nothing.  If this game was on another Saturday and played at Chestnut Hill, is it more or less likely to be on ESPN2 if the teams are both headed towards 3-9 seasons?

Notre Dame vs. Navy and Penn St. at UCF showed that we'll get up at just about any hour to watch college football.  I'll get up, go for a walk, and probably listen to some of it.  You might tune in too if your EPL or Bundesliga club isn't playing either.

* Excluding the day after Thanksgiving and the opening Thursday night, eight Thursday & Friday night games in 2016 were set aside by ESPN, four each on Thursdays and Fridays .  This is up one from 2015.  The Palm Beach Post reports that Florida St. will host their first Friday night game since 1957.

Not counted above was NC State at North Carolina, which will be played the day after Thanksgiving (the ACC TV contract allows one since the additions of Pittsburgh & Syracuse) and the Florida St. vs. Ole Miss game from Orlando on ESPN on Labor Day evening.

* Unless another game is scheduled for Friday, October 14th, do not be surprised if Duke at Louisville and Mississippi St. at BYU are paired together as a doubleheader on ESPN or ESPN2, unless there is a desire to stagger the start times slightly.

* For Thursday night games, Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh is the same evening as California at USC on 10/27 & North Carolina at Duke and Utah at Arizona St. are both scheduled for 11/10.  Not sure if that means FS1 will have the Pac-12 game on either date, but the 10/27 date would fall close to FOX's coverage of the NLCS, which primarily airs on FS1 in 2016.

EDIT: I miscounted the number of days.  On 10/27, FOX should be in its World Series broadcasting window, so FS1 should be open to take on either Pac-12 game.  In 2015, FS1 televised West Virginia at TCU while the World Series was on an off day between games two & three.  Thanks to Twitter follower mjbx101 for the correction.

* Louisville at Syracuse is the same evening as the US Open men's semifinals, so this game may end up on ESPN2 once television network designations are made for it.  ESPN is required to air the singles semifinals and championships of the US Open.

* Besides Syracuse's home opener vs. Colgate, which could be any of three days (the last two home openers for the Orange during Labor Day weekend have been on Fridays), the ACC schedule also noted that Louisville at Houston could be moved from Saturday, November 19th to Thursday, November 17th.  Last season the ACC schedule was released with a similar flexible designation for the Miami (FL) at Cincinnati at game, which ended up being scheduled for a Thursday night once the American Athletic Conference released their 2015 schedule.

EDIT: Colgate at Syracuse was announced as a Friday evening game.

Last year, the American's football schedule appeared about three weeks after the ACC's was released, so it should be coming out fairly soon.