WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- The Atlantic Coast Conference released its restructured 2020 football schedule on Thursday, Aug. 6 that includes 11 games (10 plus one: 10 conference and one non-conference). Wake Forest is slated to kick off the season vs. Clemson on Saturday, Sept. 12 inside Truist Field.
The ACC schedule will span 13 weeks with each team having two open dates. With health and safety the foremost priority, this structure gives individual institutions and the league flexibility to move contests if needed.
"Today's schedule announcement by the ACC is an important step towards providing our student-athletes with the opportunity to play this fall,” Director of Athletics John Currie said. “In addition to the ACC-standard COVID-19 health and safety protocols, this framework allows our staff and fans to plan for what we expect to be an exciting fall season.
“We are grateful for the leadership of Commissioner John Swofford and we all applaud the efforts of ACC Senior Associate Commissioner Michael Strickland in delivering a schedule for our league given all the variables. I appreciate Old Dominion Director of Athletics Wood Selig’s partnership to enable our contest with ODU to move from Norfolk, Va. to Winston-Salem,” Currie said. “We look forward to our future trip to Norfolk, understanding that our non-conference schedules in the coming years will evolve as we mitigate the effects of this season’s changes.”
Truist Field at Wake Forest will host Clemson (Saturday, Sept. 12), Virginia (Saturday, Oct. 17), Virginia Tech (Saturday, Oct. 24) and Miami (Saturday, Nov. 28), and its lone non-conference game will be against Old Dominion (Friday, Oct. 10). Meanwhile, the Duke’s Mayo Classic vs. Notre Dame remains in Charlotte on Sept. 26.
Road contests for the Deacs will be at NC State (Saturday, Sept. 19), Syracuse (Saturday, Oct. 31), North Carolina (Saturday, Nov. 14), Duke (Saturday, Nov. 21) and Louisville (Saturday, Dec. 5).
The ACC's Medical Advisory Group, which has been meeting weekly since the spring to advise the conference on COVID-19 related matters, has recommended minimum standards for each campus to follow as fall sports return. Among those recommendations are weekly testing for close contact sports, standards for reporting positive test results, and protocols for cleaning and sanitizing competition areas.
Wednesday's announcement from Gov. Roy Cooper for North Carolina to remain in Phase 2 impacts several aspects of the fall sports season as Wake Forest Athletics staff, coaches and University leadership continue to work together to safely host events this fall.
"We are making progress on our fall Olympic sports schedules and will keep our fans updated as plans develop under the guidance and ultimate authority of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County and the state of North Carolina," Currie said in closing.
The Demon Deacons open preseason practice today, Aug. 6.