The Atlantic Coast Conference released its 2016 Football Schedule on Tuesday afternoon, meaning Clemson’s 2016 schedule is finally complete.

Clemson will kickoff the season on Sept. 3 at Auburn before coming home on Sept. 10 to host Troy. The defending ACC Champions will then host SC State on Sept. 17 and will end the regular season, like they always do, on Nov. 26 when they host South Carolina in Death Valley.

“This schedule follows our formula from a non-conference standpoint with our traditional rivalry game against South Carolina, plus another game from a Power 5 Conference.” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “This year that team is Auburn and they will come in 2017. Then we pick up Texas A&M for two years before we play Notre Dame again in 2020.

“It’s another challenging schedule overall. We will have to play at our best from the first week as Auburn is a very difficult place to play. We saw that in 2010 when we took a National Championship Auburn team to overtime.”

The Tigers will open up ACC competition on the road for a fifth straight year. Clemson will travel to Atlanta for a Thursday night game on Sept. 22. The Tigers have not won in Atlanta since 2003.

After having a home game with Louisville on Oct. 1, Clemson will hit the road again and will play on a Friday night as it travels to Boston College on Oct. 7. It will be Clemson’s first Friday night regular season game in 60 years, but the Tigers did gain victory in their last Friday night game at any point in a season. That came in the 2014 Orange Bowl when Clemson beat a sixth-ranked Ohio State team in Miami, 40-35.

After that it has a home date with NC State (Oct. 15) before getting a week off and then traveling to Tallahassee, Fla., on Oct. 29 for what should be a winner-take-all match up with Florida State. The winner of the Clemson vs. Florida State game has won the ACC Atlantic Division every year since 2008, Swinney’s first year at Clemson.

Clemson has not won in Tallahassee since 2006.

“I like the position of the open date in week eight, closer to the middle of the season than we have had in recent years. It is also just the second time in 24 years we have not had to play consecutive games on the road, which is good for our team and our fans,” Swinney said. “We have four new teams on the schedule, including an outstanding Pittsburgh program, who we have not played in nearly 40 years.”

The Tigers return home a week later to face Syracuse on Nov. 5 and then play Pitt on Nov. 12 in Death Valley as well. The Tigers and Panthers have not played on the gridiron since Pitt beat Steve Fuller’s Tigers in the 1977 Gator Bowl.

For the second straight year, Clemson will conclude its ACC schedule at Wake Forest on Nov. 19. South Carolina will be the Senior Day opponent.

Schedule Notes

•Swinney’s Tigers have 10 games on Saturdays, one on a Thursday and one on a Friday. All seven home games are on Saturdays, but the Tigers will play at Georgia Tech on a Thursday and at Boston College on a Friday night. Both of those games will be nationally televised by ESPN.

•It will be Clemson’s first regular season game on a Friday since November 16, 1956 when the Tigers lost at Miami (FL), 21-0. Clemson’s last regular season win on a Friday actually took place in Boston. The Tigers defeated Boston College at Braves Field, 13-0 on Halloween, 1952. 

•As a result of the Thursday and Friday road games in the first half of the schedule, Clemson will not have a road Saturday game between September 4 and October 28.

2016 Clemson Football Schedule

Sept. 3 at Auburn

Sept. 10 TROY

Sept. 17 SOUTH CAROLINA STATE

Sept. 22 at Georgia Tech, ESPN (Thu.)

Oct. 1 LOUISVILLE

Oct. 7 at Boston College (Fri.)

Oct. 15 NC STATE

Oct. 22 OPEN

Oct. 29 at Florida State

Nov. 5 SYRACUSE

Nov. 12 PITT

Nov. 19 at Wake Forest

Nov. 26 SOUTH CAROLINA