With the 2026 season, the ACC is attempting to transition to a nine conference game model. There are two major issues with this transition. First, it's mathematically impossible for a 17-team conference to schedule 9 conference games for everyone. At best, only 16 teams can play a nine game schedule, with the last team only playing eight. On top of that, due to various other schedule restrictions, only 12 teams will be playing the nine game schedule in 2026.