The 2020 Atlantic Coast Conference football season, part of the

2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 151st season of college football games in the United States. Organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivisio ...

, is the 68th season of

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

play for the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

(ACC). It began on September 3, 2020, and ended in January 2021. For 2020, the ACC consists of 15 members in one division. The entire 2020 schedule was released on January 22, 2020. On July 29, a revised concept of the schedule was released in the wake of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. It was announced that teams would play a ten-game conference schedule, which would include Notre Dame. An option was left for one out-of-conference game, provided that game was played in the home state of the ACC school.

Previous season

Clemson defeated

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

62–17 in the

ACC Football Championship Game The ACC Championship Game is an annual American college football game held in early December by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) each year to determine List of Atlantic Coast Conference football champions, its football champion. From its ince ...

. The victory, along with a 12–0 regular season record, earned Clemson a berth in the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

. The Tigers were the number three seed in the playoff and faced

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

in the 2019 Fiesta Bowl. The Tigers won the game 29–23 and advanced to the National Championship game where they lost to LSU 25–42.

Preseason

ACC Kickoff

Due to the

, the ACC announced that its 2020 Football Kickoff will be held virtually this year, instead of at the Westin in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most popu ...

. The Kickoff will be held from July 21–23, 2020. On July 13, it was announced that the Kickoff was postponed until further notice. On September 4, 2020, the ACC Preseason Media Poll was released.

Preseason ACC Player of the Year

Source:

Preseason All-Conference Teams

=Offense

=Defense

=Specialist

= Source:

Recruiting classes

Coaches

Coaching changes

The ACC entered the 2020 season with two new head football coaches: * On November 4, 2019, Florida State head coach

Willie Taggart Willie Author Taggart (born August 27, 1976) is an American football college coach. He has held the head coach position at five NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision programs: Western Kentucky (2009 to 2012 seasons); South Florida (2013 to ...

was fired and replaced by

Mike Norvell Michael Kelly Norvell (born October 11, 1981) is an American college football coach who is currently head coach at Florida State. Norvell was previously the head coach at Memphis. He has coached at Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, and Central ...

on December 7, 2019. * On December 1, 2019, Boston College head coach

Steve Addazio Stephen Robert Addazio (born June 1, 1959) is an American football coach and former player. He currently is the offensive line coach for Texas A&M University. Addazio served as the head football coach at Temple University from 2011 to 2012, Bos ...

was fired after seven seasons and a starting the season 2–8.

Jeff Hafley Jeff Hafley (born April 4, 1979) is an American football coach who is the head coach of Boston College. Raised in Montvale, New Jersey, Hafley played prep football at Pascack Hills High School. Hafley was a four-year letterman (1997–2000) as ...

was named head coach on December 14, 2019.

Head coaching records

''Notes'' *Records shown are prior to the 2020 season *Years at school includes the 2020 season

Rankings

Schedule

Regular season

The regular season will begin on September 10 and will end on December 5. The ACC Championship game is scheduled for December 12 or December 19, 2020.

Week one

Week two

Week three

Week four

Week five

Week six

Week seven

Week eight

Week nine

Week ten

Week eleven

Week twelve

Week thirteen

Week fourteen

Championship game

ACC vs other conferences

ACC vs Power 5 matchups

This is a list of the

power conference The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate ...

teams ( Big 10,

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Divisi ...

, Notre Dame and SEC). Due to the

, Notre Dame was scheduled to play a full ACC season and was eligible for the ACC Championship game, and is therefore excluded from the list. Other Power 5 Conferences announced a conference only schedule model, and no ACC team played another Power 5 team during the regular season.

ACC vs Group of Five matchups

The following games include ACC teams competing against teams from the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

C-USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

, MAC,

Mountain West The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — d ...

ACC vs FBS independents matchups

The following games include ACC teams competing against

FBS Independents National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Subdivision independent schools are four-year institutions whose football programs are not part of an NCAA-affiliated conference. This means that FBS independents are not required to s ...

, which includes

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from ...

, or

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

ACC vs FCS matchups

Records against other conferences

Regular Season Post Season

Postseason

Bowl games

Rankings are from CFP rankings. All times Eastern Time Zone. ACC teams shown in bold.

Awards and honors

Player of the week honors

All Conference Teams

Source: First Team Second Team Third Team

ACC Individual Awards

ACC Player of the Year :

Trevor Lawrence William Trevor Lawrence (born October 6, 1999) is an American football quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). Considered among the highest-touted college football prospects, he won the 2019 National Ch ...

, Clemson ACC Rookie of the Year :

Kyren Williams Kyren Williams (born August 26, 2000) is an American football running back for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Notre Dame. Early life and high school Williams grew up in St. Louis, Miss ...

, Notre Dame ACC Coach of the Year : Brian Kelly, Notre Dame ACC Offensive Player of the Year :

, Clemson ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year :

, Notre Dame

Jacobs Blocking Trophy The Jacobs Blocking Trophy is the name of several similar annual college football awards bestowed by a conference upon their best blocker. The awards are named in honor of William P. Jacobs, founder and president of Presbyterian College from 1935 t ...

Liam Eichenberg Liam Eichenberg (born January 19, 1998) is an American football offensive tackle for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Notre Dame and was drafted by the Dolphins in the second round of th ...

, Notre Dame ACC Defensive Player of the Year :

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (born November 4, 1999) is an American football linebacker for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Notre Dame, where he won the Butkus Award and was named the ACC D ...

, Notre Dame ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year :

Bryan Bresee Bryan Bresee (; born October 6, 2001) is an American football defensive tackle for the Clemson Tigers. He was the 2020 ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year. High school career Bresee played football at Urbana High School in Frederick, Maryland ...

, Clemson

All-Americans

Consensus All-Americans

Associated Press

AFCA

FWAA

The Sporting News

WCFF

National Award Winners

* Nolan Cooney –

Brian Piccolo Award The Brian Piccolo Award is an honor that is given to players of the Chicago Bears. The award is given to one rookie and one veteran per season who best exemplifies the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and sense of humor of the late Brian Pic ...

–

Butkus Award The Butkus Award, instituted in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, is given annually to the top linebackers at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of football. The award, named in honor of College Football Hall of Fame ...

Home game attendance