ACC Men's Basketball Shifts to an 18-Game Schedule Next Season; How Will this Impact Virginia Basketball?

The ACC recently announced a change that will be implemented in the 2025-26 season: an 18-game schedule is set to replace the allotted 20 games. Coming off of a year for the conference in which only four of its schools (Duke, Louisville, Clemson, and North Carolina) received bids to the NCAA Tournament, the ACC will now open up two more contests for schools to use against non-conference opponents early in the year. This means that the in-conference season will begin in late December as usual and will now end on the first Saturday in March.

While the ACC is set to rebound from a down year in 2024-25, the conference is on the right wavelength in terms of opening up non-conference games that could further affect tournament seeding. Could ACC teams have a greater chance of securing Quad One opportunities with this flexible option available? At the very least, Virginia will play every ACC team only once outside of a game against a “primary” partner — Virginia Tech — and a “variable” partner, which should be announced once the ‘Hoos’ schedule is released. 

“Moving to an 18-game conference schedule is a direct result of our ongoing strategic review and analysis and provides our schools a better balance of non-conference and conference games, while also allowing them more autonomy in the scheduling process,” said ACC commissioner Jim Phillips.” Once again, the non-conference has manifested itself as a necessity for schools to bolster their resumes before conference play hits.

In 2024-25, the conference struggled mightily in the non-conference, with Duke carrying the load after logging one of two wins in the ACC/SEC Challenge against No. 2 Auburn. Clemson also defeated No. 4 Kentucky at home, and the Blue Devils took down No. 17 Arizona on the road outside of the yearly challenge. Phillips knows that his conference, bound for a comeback following some stacked portal and high school recruiting classes, may not be as exposed going forward.

The ACC also played 18-game schedules from 2012-13 to 2018-19 and then shifted to the 20-game model in 2019-20. In the former’s span, the conference won three of seven National Championships — Duke in 2015, North Carolina in 2017, and Virginia in 2019. History is on its side with this move.

Here is a list of the primary partners, set to square off twice a year:

Virginia and Virginia Tech

Duke and North Carolina

Boston College and Notre Dame

Wake Forest and NC State

California and Stanford

Louisville and SMU

Syracuse and Pitt

Clemson and Georgia Tech

Miami and Florida State

Virginia and Virginia Tech’s rivalry is not in jeopardy. While home and away against the likes of Duke, North Carolina, and Louisville will come in waves, the Cavaliers will have the chance to schedule two more games in the non-conference. NC State just announced a home-and-home series with VCU beginning next season, and Louisville will renew its rivalry with Memphis for the next six years.

Villanova and VCU are two schools to monitor as non-conference targets for Virginia. The ‘Hoos split a legendary series with the Wildcats from 2015-17 and last played VCU in 2018, a gritty contest which resulted in a 57-49 win for the ‘Hoos. Odom last coached for the Rams.

Luckily, Virginia has already scheduled a four-game series with the Big Ten’s Maryland — an old ACC foe now under the leadership of Virginia Tech’s former coach, Buzz Williams — beginning next season and ending in 2028-29. That’s quite a matchup in Odom’s first year.

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