Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell during the first half with Wake Forest at Littlejohn Coliseum Friday, December 2, 2022. Clemson Basketball Vs Wake Forest University Acc Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

Clemson Basketball Schedule Set to Change After Recent ACC Announcement

Originally posted on Clemson Tigers on SI | By Jacob Moss | Last updated May 7, 2025 7:00 PM ET

The Clemson Tigers men's basketball team is about to see a pretty significant shift in their schedule starting this upcoming season, as the ACC has announced they will be shifting to an 18-game in conference format moving forward.

This means that every ACC program will now only being playing 18 games against fellow in conference opponents, which is two less than the 20 games the conference had been mandating since the 2019-20 season.

Per the announcement, each program will have one "primary partner" which they will be permanently scheduled to play twice a year, one "secondary partner" that they will play twice each season on a rotating basis, and 14 other "single opponents" that the will play once each season.

Why Make the Change?

This new format marks a major shift in the way the ACC is approaching their strength of schedule, and is presumably a response to the conference's recent lack of success in the NCAA Tournament. This past season saw the tradition-rich conference send just four of it's 18 teams to the big dance, with Clemson being among them.

Now teams will be free to schedule two new out of conference opponents that will in theory help bolster their resume, and in doing so boost their chances of making the tournament come March.

Beginning with the 2025-26 season, ACC Men’s Basketball teams will play an 18-game conference schedule.

details: https://t.co/iaAUlujQTv pic.twitter.com/jF5FaTrw8K
— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) May 7, 2025

When it comes to the impact this new format will have on the Tigers, the full scope won't be known until the ACC decides to announce who each team's primary and secondary partners will be. Such an announcement likely won't be made until much closer to the season, but in the meantime head coach Brad Brownell will likely be searching for two new opponents to add to his non-conference slate.

This could mean adding two more high profile top 25 teams in an effort to boost his strength of schedule, or it could mean adding two lesser opponents that will both add to his team's win total, as well as helping to get his players more easy reps early on.

Due to some pretty significant roster turnover, Clemson is slated to have a new group of guys who really haven't played much together. As such, they're likely going to need a few games to all get on the same page.

It will be interesting to see what both the ACC and Tigers decide to do in regards to this upcoming season's schedule, and the total impact those decisions end up having on the team come March.

This article first appeared on Clemson Tigers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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