Does Clemson already have its week 1 opponent for 2027?

We all know that the Clemson Tigers will be opening their 2026 season with LSU on Sept. 5. However, the 2027 season might already have an opponent ready, and it’s a rival team.

During the ACC Kickoff last week, NC State head coach Dave Doeren teased the potential of Clemson and the Wolfpack meeting to open the 2027 season. He elaborated on it on a North Carolina-based podcast, Ovies and Goglio, after being asked about the cancellation of his team’s game in Brazil against Virginia, which is now moved to campus. 

“Next year, we open with Clemson, so we’ll have back-to-back openers this way,” he said.

Head coach Dabo Swinney and his team don’t have a non-conference opponent to open the year, being the case from 2024-26. Georgia and a home-and-home series against LSU, which ends this season, have been the case for early tests to break into the season. 

The Wolfpack is no pushover, either, with Clemson trading wins and losses against them since the 2019 season. The last time the two teams played, the Tigers exploded for 59 points in 2024 at home to take down NC State. 

There is no confirmation where the game would be, but previous plans have had the two playing on Sept. 6, 2027. That would happen on Labor Day in the next calendar year. There was also speculation of playing South Carolina on Black Friday at the end of the season for a primetime game during Rivalry Week. 

Swinney’s last time playing an ACC opponent to open the season was not one to remember. The Tigers fell to the Duke Blue Devils in Durham, North Carolina, 28-7 in a disappointing affair for his group.

Clemson’s lack of a Week 1 opponent coming from out of conference is due to the new agreement it has with Notre Dame. The two programs will play each other from 2027 to 2037, and those games generally happen throughout the middle of the season. 

The potential game would return the Textile Bowl to Clemson’s schedule. NC State and the Tigers’ historic rivalry is one of the deepest in the ACC itself. It also puts up two of the longest-tenured head coaches in the conference in Doeren and Swinney. 

Nothing has been confirmed yet to the public, meaning that there is a chance for this contest to happen in a primetime slot on Labor Day next year. However, with Doeren speaking about it in Charlotte last week, don’t be surprised if the Textile Bowl happens once again to open the 2027 year.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/clemson as Does Clemson Already Have Its Week 1 Opponent For 2027?.