10 Power 4 games per season<\/a>) and Florida State secured a Week 0 game vs. New Mexico State to replace its canceled matchup with Notre Dame.<\/p>\nWhen FSU is playing its conference games, though, will be revealed on Monday, and how it\u2019s laid out could determine a make-or-break for Mike Norvell in year seven of his tenure in Tallahassee \u2014 could a rough start for the Seminoles signal the end of the Norvell era before September? What if the Noles get a favorable draw to end the year?<\/p>\n
Below are three questions about the FSU football schedule before its release \u2014 feel free to share your own guesses on what the slate could look like or any other things on your mind in the comments.<\/p>\n
No. 1: What will Florida State\u2019s weeks one and two look like?<\/p>\n
With weeks zero, three (Alabama) and four (Central Arkansas) spoken for, Florida State is guaranteed to begin conference play early this season. If the Seminoles don\u2019t get an early bye, then they\u2019ll be facing off against a conference opponent in weeks one and two.<\/p>\n
This puts immense pressure on Norvell to start the conference schedule with a win after going 0-4 to begin ACC play in 2025 and 0-2 in 2024 (overall, in ACC games prior to Week 4, Norvell is 2-4). FSU and Clemson haven\u2019t played in the first three weeks of the season since 2007, so it\u2019ll be Virginia, NC State and\/or SMU coming to Tallahassee early, and Florida State has lost the most recent meetings to each respective school. The bye week is the biggest x-factor \u2014 if the Seminoles get a rough draw and fail to rise to the occasion, they could be 2-3 heading into October without much opportunity for Norvell to cool his seat down in the weeks following.<\/p>\n
No. 2: When are the rivalry games?<\/p>\n
Miami has been a November matchup in seven of the last 15 seasons and a Week 6 (Oct. 10 this year) game five times over that period. Florida State will be looking to prevent a three-game losing streak in the series vs. the Hurricanes, and depending on when it happens on the schedule and how the season shakes out, the outcome might have echoes of what forced the administration\u2019s hand in 2019 with Willie Taggart.<\/p>\n
Where will Clemson be slotted? Only six times in the last 15 years has the game been played outside of October, so a midseason matchup makes sense after the norm was broken last season.<\/p>\n
And while not quite rivalry matchups, a handful of FSU\u2019s transfers went to other ACC schools, adding additional intrigue to in-conference matchups. Tight end Randy Pittman Jr. (SMU) will return to Doak, while wide receiver Lawayne McCoy (Louisville), defensive tackle KJ Sampson (Boston College) and kicker Jake Weinberg (Miami) will get the chance to face off against FSU in their new home stadiums.<\/p>\n
No. 3: How will the schedule shake out to end the year?<\/p>\n
One game is set in stone \u2014 FSU\u2019s Nov. 28 matchup vs. Florida in Tallahassee. Outside of that, the last few games are up for grabs. Just like 2025, there\u2019s no breather against a cupcake this year to soften the blow, so the Seminoles will go straight from conference play to its game vs. the Gators.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a shot that Miami is one of FSU\u2019s final four opponents. Since it\u2019s also likely the Noles to get a road game the weekend before UF to avoid back-to-back away games to end conference play \u2014 something that has happened just twice in the last 15 years \u2014 that means that a road trip to Louisville, Pitt or Boston College could serve as the penultimate game of the season.<\/p>\n
How to watch the ACC schedule release:<\/p>\n
The ACC will reveal its 2026 schedule at 9 p.m. on Monday, January 26, on ACC Network.<\/p>\n
Florida State football: 2026 schedule<\/p>\n
Aug. 29: New Mexico State (Home)Sept. 19: Alabama (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)Sept. 26: Central Arkansas (Home)Nov. 28: Florida (Home)TBD: Clemson (Home)TBD: NC State (Home)TBD: SMU (Home)TBD: Virginia (Home)TBD: Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Mass.)TBD: Louisville (Louisville, Ky.)TBD: Miami (Miami Gardens, Fla.)TBD: Pitt (Pittsburgh, Pa.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, January 26, the ACC will officially finalize schedules for its 17 members. FSU has known who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10867,7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-699249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-florida-state-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115945274503378323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}