Florida State’s trip to Miami now has a spotlight to match the stakes.
The Seminoles and Hurricanes will meet Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN, with Miami announcing the kickoff time and network Monday afternoon. It will be Florida State’s first ACC road test of the season, while Miami gets its first ACC home game after opening conference play with three straight games away from home.
The matchup arrives with Miami rolling and Florida State trying to steady itself. The Hurricanes are 5-0 overall and sitting atop the ACC at 3-0. Florida State is 3-2 and 1-1 in league play.
Both teams come in off Saturday wins. Florida State handled Virginia, 38-7, and Miami went into Clemson and left with a 41-13 victory. The Hurricanes now own 37 wins and 33 losses in the all-time series against Florida State.
For Florida State, the schedule has already been uneven. The Seminoles opened with a win over New Mexico State, then never led in a loss to SMU and watched a 21-6 advantage disappear in a 50-36 defeat at Alabama.
Miami’s recent edge in the rivalry is clear. The Hurricanes have won the last two meetings and six of the past nine. Since the start of the 2024 season, Miami is 21-6, while Florida State has gone 7-18 since winning the 2023 ACC Championship.
That’s part of why the ACC picture looks the way it does right now. The source notes that Miami has passed Clemson and Florida State as the conference’s best overall program.
Florida State still has a lot in front of it, and not much margin. The Seminoles are at Louisville on Friday at 7 p.m.
ET on ESPN, and they need three more wins to reach bowl eligibility. Their remaining 2026 schedule also includes Clemson, Boston College, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State.
As for the Miami game, the math is lopsided. The ESPN Football Power Index gives the Hurricanes a 91.8 percent chance to beat Florida State.
Miami’s goals are much bigger than just winning the rivalry game. The Hurricanes are chasing a high seed and trying to reach a second straight College Football Playoff.
All remaining Miami game times, other than Notre Dame at 7:30 p.m. ET, will be set later.
In Other News...
Clemson Just Made Miamis Poll Rise Even Harder To Ignore
Miamis emphatic 41-13 win over Clemson has done more than just boost the Hurricanes in the rankings. It also made their place in the national conversation a lot harder to dismiss, especially with both the Associated Press Top 25 and AFCA Coaches Poll giving them a bump after the victory. Notre Dame also climbed after its 37-26 win over North Carolina, adding another ranked team to the mix as the playoff picture starts to take shape.
For Clemson, the result adds another layer to a season already defined by the need to rebuild its standing in a crowded field. The schedule still has a say in how this all settles, with upcoming games and strength of schedule numbers looming as the next major test for both Miami and Notre Dame. But after what Miami just did in Death Valley, the attention around the Hurricanes is only getting louder. [Read more 🡒]
Clemson Gets The Reset It Needed At The Perfect Time
After the Week 6 bye, Clemson gets a chance to reset at just the right moment when Charleston Southern comes to Memorial Stadium on Saturday for a noon kickoff on the ACC Network. The break gave the Tigers a pause in the middle of the schedule, and now they return home with the kind of game that can help settle things down and get the second half moving in the right direction.
For a team looking to build momentum, this is the sort of matchup that can matter beyond the final score. Clemson does not get many clean opportunities to turn a reset into a run, but this one arrives with plenty of timing on its side, and the Tigers will hope it becomes the start of something more than just a routine return to play. [Read more 🡒]
Clemson Suddenly Has A Bigger Bye Week Problem Than Fans Expected
Clemsons bye week arrived with more than the usual list of self-scouting chores. After the loss to Miami, Dabo Swinney said the Tigers are spending the open date on recovery, personnel evaluation and cleaning up the mistakes that showed up in that setback, all while preparing for Charleston Southern. It is the kind of pause that should help in theory, but it has also become a stretch for the staff to sort through a roster that has been hit hard by injuries.
The latest concern is on defense, where Corian Gipson is out for the season and needs surgery, deepening a problem that has already thinned Clemsons options. There is also movement to track in the run game, with Jarvis Green unavailable for the next game and Jay Haynes positioned to matter more in the backfield rotation. For a team trying to steady itself after a loss, the bye was supposed to be about getting healthier, but it has increasingly become about finding who is left and how they fit. [Read more 🡒]