Mark your calendars: Clemson football’s schedule is set for 2024

Clemson football’s 2024 schedule is official.

The ACC released the Tigers’ full 12-game schedule Wednesday during a two-hour TV special, with kickoff times to be determined at a later date. Here’s the full schedule:

• Aug. 31: vs. Georgia (at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)

• Sept. 7: vs. App State

• Sept. 14: OPEN

• Sept. 21: vs. NC State

• Sept. 28: vs. Stanford

• Oct. 5: at Florida State

• Oct. 12: at Wake Forest

• Oct. 19: vs. Virginia

• Oct. 26: OPEN

• Nov. 2: vs. Louisville

• Nov. 9: at Virginia Tech

• Nov. 16: at Pitt

• Nov. 23: vs. The Citadel

• Nov. 30: vs. South Carolina

In a news release announcing its 2024 schedule, Clemson also said it’s planning to hold its annual spring game at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 6 at Memorial Stadium. That’s up a week from last year’s spring game (April 15).

The Tigers’ non-conference games — including a massive season opener against Georgia in the 2024 Aflac Kickoff Game — were already public before Wednesday, as were their conference home game opponents and away game opponents.

For a second straight season, ACC teams will compete in a divisionless format with the top two teams based on conference winning percentage competing in the ACC championship in Charlotte the first weekend of December. The league also jumps up from 14 to 17 full-time football members after adding Cal, Stanford and SMU last fall.

Coach Dabo Swinney’s team went 9-4 in 2023, snapping a 12-year streak of consecutive seasons dating back to 2011. The Tigers finished the year beating Kentucky in the Gator Bowl but failed to qualify for the ACC championship game or College Football Playoff for the second time in three seasons.

But with the CFP expanding from four teams to 12 teams starting in 2024, there’s opportunity abound for Clemson, which finished No. 22 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll of the season and sits at No. 19 in ESPN’s way-too-early Top 25 for 2024.

Here’s what else you need to know about the schedule:

Massive season opener

This game isn’t a surprise — it was announced back in 2018. But there’s no better test for Clemson’s 2024 roster than its very first game against Georgia in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Expect a massive crowd from both sides and a prime-time TV slot for the second meeting in three years between Clemson and UGA, which won the 2021 and 2022 national championships and will likely be the No. 1 team in the AP preseason Top 25.

Road games duos

Clemson was often at its worst — and starting quarterback Cade Klubnik at his most turbulent — in opposing venues. The Tigers were 2-3 on the road last year and dropped three of their first four to Duke, Miami and N.C. State. The team’s 2024 slate features two two-game road stints (at Florida State and Wake Forest in October; at Virginia Tech and Pitt in November), and those four games could make or break Clemson’s season. Of note here: Clemson is playing its first non-pandemic road game at VT’s rocking Lane Stadium since 2017.

Former Tigers on deck

During one three-week stretch in October, Clemson will play its former starting quarterback and former offensive coordinator in conference games. One-time Tigers starter DJ Uiagalelei is now at Florida State, where he’s widely presumed to be taking over for Jordan Travis. He’ll get a chance to topple his former team Oct. 5 in Tallahassee after transferring from Clemson in late 2022 after losing the starting job to Klubnik. And Tony Elliott, the Tigers’ former star OC, returns to Death Valley on Oct. 19 in his second season as Virginia’s head coach.

No settling in

Each of the past two seasons, Clemson’s played an in-state FCS school during the first three games of its schedule. This year, though, there’s no cupcake game reprieve until November. The Tigers play four of their first five games against Power Five teams, and App State, the fifth team in that stretch, is no pushover. In the Mountaineers’ last eight games against P5 teams, all eight have been decided by no more than seven points. App State is 3-5 in those games.

Home cooking

Clemson has two open dates this season, and they come at good times: directly ahead of the Tigers’ two toughest home games, in terms of opposing record. The team gets a week off before hosting N.C. State (9-4 last season with a win over Clemson) on Sept. 21 and Louisville (10-4 last season with an ACC championship game appearance) on Nov. 2. A Nov. 23 meeting with The Citadel, an in-state FCS school, is another opportunity to rest any banged-up players ahead of the season finale vs. USC.

Clemson scheduling notes

More nuggets on Clemson’s 2024 schedule, courtesy of the program:

• Clemson will play a fifth straight season opener away from home, tying the longest streak of non-home openers in program history (1959-63).

• The Tigers will have multiple open dates (or off weeks) for the fifth time since 2013 (most recently 2020).

• Since Clemson’s season opener vs. Georgia is at a neutral site (Atlanta), the team’s Oct. 5 game at FSU represents its latest road opener in a season since 2008.

• Swinney in 2024 will face all four of the ACC teams he remains undefeated against in his 15 seasons as Clemson’s full-time coach: Wake Forest (15-0), Louisville (8-0), Virginia Tech (6-0) and Virginia (5-0).
  
  

• Stanford, a new ACC member as of this year, will travel approximately 2,200 miles to play at Clemson in September. That’s the furthest distance an opponent’s traveled to play Clemson ever (2,000 miles by Long Beach State in 1990).

• Clemson will play its 52nd all-time game against a head coach who was a former Clemson staffer and a 12th against a head coach who was a former Clemson player when Elliott comes to down. The Tigers are 27-22-2 all time in the former category, 8-3 in the latter.

• Clemson was one of only two ACC schools (Virginia) to not get a Thursday or Friday game assignment from the ACC. As such, the team will play its first all-Saturday slate since 2020 and first in a non-pandemic season since 2018.