ACC scheduling could mean even more bad news for Clemson

The Clemson Tigers have had a tough year, and thanks to a recently adopted ACC change, it might not get easier anytime soon.

On Monday, the ACC agreed to move to a nine-game conference schedule, putting them in lockstep with the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, which also have nine-game conference slates. The decision could make life difficult for Clemson going further.

Clemson's future schedules just got much more challenging

As ESPN college football reporter Andrea Adelson noted, the Tigers agreed to a 12-year series with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, set to begin in 2027, earlier this year. With Clemson's annual rivalry game with South Carolina, that only leaves one game on its schedule for a mid-major or FCS opponent, which are normally easy wins. This season, for example, Clemson scheduled games against Troy (Sun Belt) and Furman (FCS).

The Tigers have gotten off to a 1-3 start, their worst since 2004. Questions have swirled over head coach Dabo Swinney's future, with the program seemingly having peaked under his command. Clemson's schedule won't offer many easy outs, including next year when it travels to Baton Rouge for a game against the LSU Tigers (4-0, 1-0 in SEC) to complete a home-and-home series that began with LSU's 17-10 Week 1 win.

The ACC could give Clemson a break by making it the lone ACC team with an eight-game conference schedule next season. Because the conference includes 17 members, it's mathematically impossible to schedule every team exactly nine in-conference games, meaning one team each season will play eight ACC games.

That would be about the only good news the Tigers have received this season. They could certainly use it.