It’s not often that one of the biggest conference games of the year is your conference opener, but that’s the situation for No. 23 Louisville as it hosts No. 16 SMU in a top-25 battle that will set the stage for the rest of the ACC title race.
SMU and Louisville have each played for the ACC Championship in the last three years and entered the 2026 season as two of the top contenders to challenge Miami for league supremacy. Unfortunately, neither SMU nor Louisville are scheduled to play Miami in the regular season this year.
That means if either is going to beat the Hurricanes, it’ll have to happen in Charlotte in the ACC Championship Game, and if Miami is there, only one spot will be up for grabs. That spot, potentially, could be hanging in the balance on Saturday afternoon in Louisville…