Tough early tests await Wahoos on 2020 schedule
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 SPORTS) -- Clemson and Georgia both finished the 2019 college football season ranked among the top four teams in the country. Virginia will travel to play them both in the first four weeks of the 2020 season.
The Wahoos already knew they'd open the season against Georgia at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Labor Day. Wednesday's release of the full 2020 ACC football schedule revealed that UVA's scheduled visit to Clemson will be played on September 26, the final Saturday of the season's opening month.
Georgia finished last season ranked No. 4 by the Associated Press after beating Baylor in the Sugar Bowl. Clemson ended the year at No. 2 after winning a fifth straight ACC title, and ultimately advancing to the CFP National Championship, where the Tigers lost to LSU.
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The Cavaliers are coming off a 9-5 season that included the program's first-ever Coastal Division title, and ended with a loss to Florida in UVA's first-ever Orange Bowl appearance.
UVA last faced the Bulldogs in the 2000 O'ahu Bowl. The two programs haven't met during the regular season since 1987. The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game will also mark UVA's first season opener at a neutral site since facing Notre Dame at Giants Stadium in New Jersey in the 1989 Kickoff Classic.
Last November's UVA loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship was the first meeting between those two programs since the 2013 regular season. The Cavaliers haven't visited Death Valley since 2009.
Those two high-profile bookend a pair of non-conference home games on the Cavaliers' 2020 schedule, against VMI (September 12) and UConn (September 19).
The visit to Clemson also serves as the Wahoos' ACC opener. The following Saturday (October 3), they'll host North Carolina to open Coastal Division play. UVA's ACC home schedule also includes visits from Miami (October 31) and Louisville (November 7) on back-to-back weekends, and against Pitt on November 21.
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UVA's lone bye week comes the weekend after UNC's visit to Scott Stadium. That's followed by a pair of road games, at Georgia Tech (October 17) then at Old Dominion (October 24). UVA's Coastal Division schedule is rounded out by visits to Duke on November 13 -- the lone Friday game for the Cavaliers this season -- and Virginia Tech on November 28.
That trip to Blacksburg marks the first time since 2016 that UVA and the Hokies have met on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, instead of Black Friday.