The ACC is officially adopting a new scheduling format, as commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement released by the conference on Monday that the ACC will move to a nine-game conference schedule.

During his weekly radio show Monday night, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney commented on the league’s nine-game ACC schedule change.

“I don’t know much about it, honestly,” Swinney said. “I’ve known that they were discussing that. [Clemson athletic director] Graham [Neff] has kind of kept me in the loop on that a little bit, and he gave me a little heads-up text that they were going to announce that tonight. But I haven’t met with him. I don’t have much info on it.”

With the move to nine conference games, the ACC is requiring each school to play a minimum of 10 games against Power 4 teams each season.

Radio show host Don Munson pointed out that Clemson has contracts with Notre Dame and other schools coming up, and the Tigers are going to have to play 11 Power 4 programs.

Swinney called it “stupid” that Clemson could play 11 Power 4 games, with other Power 4 schools playing only nine or 10 P4 games.

“I think that’s stupid,” Swinney said. “I think that’s a problem. Somewhere along the line, you’ve got to have some common sense. We’ve been playing 10 Power Five ever since I’ve been the head coach. There’s not many that have done that. Very few programs. Most programs schedule three wins guaranteed, or should be three wins, and have played nine Power teams. That’s what the majority of schools have done. But we’ve always played 10.

“But to play 11, that doesn’t make any sense. We’ve already conversations with things, because some of these teams are cancelling games because of that very reason. Because their conference is going to nine, they don’t wanna play 11, or they don’t even wanna play 10. They wanna play nine and then try to schedule three wins, if you will. So, everybody’s got their philosophy. But we’ve always played 10. But if other people are playing nine and we’re playing 11, that’s not very advantageous for your program.”

The ACC’s move to nine conference games comes on the heels of the SEC also announcing plans to move to a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026. With this move, all four Power conferences will now follow the nine-game scheduling format.

Phillips’ statement did not reveal whether or not the league plans to implement the new format in time for the 2026 season.