Athlon Sports predicted the best ACC game for every week of the 2026 college football season.

Four Clemson games made the list, the first of which is the Week 4 matchup at Cal.

When the Tigers face the Golden Bears at California Memorial Stadium on Friday, Sept. 25, it will mark the first time in school history that Clemson plays a conference game on the West Coast.

The game will be Clemson’s fourth all-time in the Golden State, joining road games at Pacific in 1951 and USC in 1966 in addition to Clemson’s victory over Alabama in Santa Clara to win the national championship for the 2018 season.

It will be the second all-time meeting between Clemson and Cal, as the teams’ only previous meeting came in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day in 1992, a 37-13 victory for the Golden Bears.

“Once again, this isn’t a classic ACC clash; these teams have only met once before,” Athlon’s Kyle Wood wrote. “But it’s an intriguing game for a number of reasons. This is the Tigers’ first West Coast trip since the ACC expanded. (You can practically hear Dabo Swinney griping about the travel already.) And it’s a Friday night in Berkeley the week before Clemson plays Miami. Perhaps this is a lookahead spot, but the Golden Bears demand respect. Just ask SMU, which missed out on a trip to the ACC championship after Keawe-Sagapolutele exploded for four touchdowns in the 2025 finale.”

One week later, the Tigers will return home to host Miami at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 3, and Athlon pegged that matchup as the best of Week 5.

It will be a clash between last season’s national championship runner-up in the Hurricanes, and the Tigers, a seven-time College Football Playoff participant and two-time CFP champion.

The all-time series between the Tigers and Hurricanes is tied at seven wins apiece, but Clemson holds a 6-3 advantage in the series since Miami joined the ACC prior to the 2004 season.

“Now about that Miami-Clemson game… The Tigers have slipped over the last few seasons while the Hurricanes have ascended,” Wood wrote. “Miami just made a run to the national championship game, and coach Mario Cristobal’s team looks to be in an even better spot with quarterback Darian Mensah. (Clemson fans will recall Mensah’s heroics at Death Valley last season at Duke.) The ‘Canes seem dead set on winning their first ACC championship. But in order to get there, they’ll have to survive their toughest test in conference play.”

The best ACC game in Week 8, Athlon says, is the contest between Clemson and Virginia Tech.

Led by new head coach James Franklin, Virginia Tech will make its first trip to Clemson since 2012 when the Tigers host the Hokies on Oct. 24.

Clemson is 7-0 against Virginia Tech during Swinney’s head coaching tenure dating to his first matchups with the Hokies in 2011 when Clemson secured two victories against highly ranked Virginia Tech squads, one on the road and one in the 2011 ACC Championship Game.

“After Miami, SMU and Louisville, these are the two best teams in the conference,” Wood wrote. “Swinney has not lost to the Hokies since he took over the Tigers almost two decades ago. But this is a different version of Virginia Tech. At least, new coach James Franklin hopes it is. This is the start of a pivotal stretch for the Hokies, who could be on the cusp of ACC championship contention if all goes according to plan in Year 1. Conversely, Clemson has its own designs to get back to Charlotte.”

The following week, Clemson will travel to Tallahassee to face Florida State on Oct. 31.

The Tigers will try to extend their current road winning streak at Doak Campbell Stadium to five games. A victory in the Halloween contest would make Clemson only the third program ever to win five or more consecutive road games at Florida State, joining Florida (six from 1966-76) and Miami (five from 1957-77).

Clemson is 9-1 in its last 10 games overall against the Seminoles, including its 4-0 mark in Tallahassee in that span.

“There was a time when these teams combined to win 10 consecutive ACC championships,” Wood wrote. “Those days might be through, but this rivalry still carries weight. The timing is notable given that the Seminoles have a bye week after their back-to-back road games at Louisville and Miami. Might FSU be led by interim head coach Tom Herman for this visit from the Tigers? Even given that possibility, this trip to Tallahassee is Clemson’s toughest road game in ACC play.”

Clemson will open the 2026 season against LSU at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., on Sept. 5 (7:30 p.m., ABC). Clemson’s regular season over/under win total at DraftKings Sportsbook is 7.5, and Wood, as well as fellow Athlon writer Steven Lassan, predicted Clemson to hit the over on that number. The Tigers are looking to bounce back from a 7-6 season in 2025, the second-worst record in Swinney’s full 17 seasons as head coach.