In a critical season for coach Brian Gregory, the ACC schedule will not begin gently for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets open with three of four games on the road, including the conference opener at preseason No. 1 candidate North Carolina (Jan. 2) and the fourth game at Notre Dame (Jan. 13), last year’s ACC champion. For good measure, the home game is with Virginia (Jan. 9), which administered a historic blowout to the Jackets last January, won the league’s regular-season title and will likely start the season in the top 10.
The ACC released the conference schedule Wednesday. The team’s non-conference schedule has already been released.
Tech will open conference play on the road for the third consecutive season. Besides home-and-homes with permanent partners Notre Dame and Clemson, the Jackets will also play two games against Pittsburgh and Louisville. It will be Tech’s first trip to Louisville since 1999 and to the Cardinals’ KFC Yum! Center, which opened in 2010.
A particularly tough stretch for the Jackets starts in late January. Tech will play a Wednesday night game at N.C. State on the 27th, then fly out two days later for a Saturday noon game at Syracuse. Upon their return, the Jackets will have two days before a Feb. 2 visit to McCamish Pavilion from Duke, the defending national champion and winners of eight in a row over Tech. The Blue Devils, meanwhile, will have been off for more than a week.
Tech is scheduled for three games on one of the ESPN networks, home contests against Louisville (Jan. 23) and Miami (Feb. 7) and on the road at Syracuse (Jan. 30). Of the 18 league games, 14 will take place on either a Wednesday or Saturday.
GEORGIA TECH SCHEDULE
