Hurricanes’ ninth ACC game for 2026 season revealed. A look at UM’s full schedule
As the Atlantic Coast Conference expands to nine conference games for most teams next season, the Miami Hurricanes’ final conference opponent has been revealed.
UM’s ninth league matchup, as announced Tuesday by the conference: A home game against the Duke Blue Devils.
Duke, led by former Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz, is the reigning ACC champion, its first league title since 1989, despite going just 8-5 overall. The Blue Devils reached the ACC title game by going 6-2 in league play and winning a five-way tiebreaker (with Miami among those teams in that tiebreaker) by having the highest conference opponent win percentage. Duke then beat the Virginia Cavaliers 27-20 in the conference title game.
Miami is 16-5 all time against Duke in football. This will be the third consecutive meeting between the teams held at Hard Rock Stadium, with the previous two coming in 2024 (a 53-31 Miami win) and 2022 (a 45-21 Duke win).
With a 17-member conference, it’s impossible for every team in the conference to play a nine-game conference schedule. As a result, a handful of teams will still play an eight-game slate.
Miami is one of 12 ACC teams that will play a nine-game conference schedule, along with California, Duke, Louisville, NC State, Pittsburgh, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
Five teams — Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and North Carolina — will have an eight-game ACC slate in 2026.
Beginning in 2027, 16 teams will play nine conference games, while one will play eight. That one is expected to rotate.
All 17 teams are required to play at least 10 total games against Power Four opponents or Notre Dame. As a result, the five teams playing only eight ACC games are required to play at least two non-conference games against power conference teams while the 12 teams with a nine-game ACC slate need only one non-conference game against a power conference opponent. Miami plays at Notre Dame on Nov. 7 to fulfill that requirement next season.
Miami’s full ACC slate includes five home games against Boston College, Duke, FSU, Pittsburgh and West Virginia plus road games at Clemson, North Carolina, Stanford and Wake Forest.
The Hurricanes have three non-conference games — home matchups on Sept. 12 against Florida A&M and Sept. 26 against Central Michigan as well as a road game at Notre Dame on Nov. 7.
The ACC will unveil the full 2026 football schedule, including all game dates for ACC play, in late January.
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 5:09 PM.
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