Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association 's Division I. ACC football teams compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The ACC sponsors competition in twenty-eight sports with many of its member institutions held in high regard nationally. Current members of the conference are Boston College, California, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest.
ACC teams and athletes have claimed dozens of national championships in multiple sports throughout the conference's history. Generally, the ACC's top athletes and teams in any particular sport in a given year are considered to be among the top collegiate competitors in the nation. Additionally, the conference enjoys extensive media coverage. With the advent of the College Football Playoff in 2014, the ACC is one of the "Power Four" conferences who had contractual tie-in to a New Year's Six bowl game in the sport of football prior to the playoffs being expanded in 2024.
The ACC was founded on May 8, 1953, by seven universities located in the South Atlantic states, with the University of Virginia joining in early December 1953 to bring the membership to eight. The loss of the University of South Carolina in 1971 dropped membership to seven, but the addition of Georgia Tech in 1979 for non-football sports and 1983 for football brought it back to eight, and Florida State's arrival in 1991 for non-football sports and 1992 for football increased the membership to nine. Since 2000, with the widespread reorganization of the NCAA, ten additional schools have joined, and one original member has left to bring it to the current membership of 18 schools. The additions in recent years extended the conference's footprint into the Northeast, Midwest, and West.
Member universities
Full members
The ACC has 18 member institutions from 12 states. Listed in alphabetical order, these 12 states within the ACC's geographical footprint are California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The geographic domain of the conference is predominantly within the Southern and Northeastern United States along the US Atlantic coast, but recent conference realignment has brought it to California and Texas. It stretches from Florida in the south to New York in the north and from California in the west to Massachusetts farthest east.When Notre Dame joined the ACC, it chose to remain a football independent. However, its football team established a special scheduling arrangement with the ACC to play a rotating selection of five ACC football teams per season. For the 2020 season, due largely to the suspension of most non-conference games by other Power Five conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the ACC reached an agreement to allow Notre Dame to play a full, 10-game conference schedule and be eligible to play for the ACC championship.
The ACC is unique among power conferences in that it has a high proportion of private universities as members; eight of its 18 members are fully private institutions. By contrast, the Big 12 has three private members, the Big Ten two, and the SEC one.
Since August 2, 2024, the 18 members of the ACC are:
| Institution | Location | Founded | Type | Enrollment | Endowment | Nickname | Joined | Colors |
| Clemson University | Clemson, South Carolina | 1889 | Public | 28,747 | $1.124 | Tigers | 1953 | |
| Duke University | Durham, North Carolina | 1838 | Nonsectarian | 17,112 | $11.890 | Blue Devils | 1953 | |
| ' | Chapel Hill, North Carolina | 1789 | Public | 32,234 | $5.728 | Tar Heels | 1953 | |
| North Carolina State University | Raleigh, North Carolina | 1887 | Public | 37,323 | $2.220 | Wolfpack | 1953 | |
| Wake Forest University | Winston-Salem, North Carolina | 1834 | Nonsectarian | 9,121 | $1.997 | Demon Deacons | 1953 | |
| ' | Charlottesville, Virginia | 1819 | Public | 25,924 | $10.217 | Cavaliers | 1953 | |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, Georgia | 1885 | Public | 47,946 | $3.167 | Yellow Jackets | 1979 | |
| Florida State University | Tallahassee, Florida | 1851 | Public | 43,234 | $1.030 | Seminoles | 1991 | |
| ' | Coral Gables, Florida | 1925 | Nonsectarian | 19,593 | $1.590 | Hurricanes | 2004 | |
| Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | Blacksburg, Virginia | 1872 | Public | 38,294 | $1.954 | Hokies | 2004 | |
| Boston College | Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts | 1863 | Catholic | 15,280 | $3.778 | Eagles | 2005 | |
| ' | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 1787 | Public | 34,525 | $5.804 | Panthers | 2013 | |
| Syracuse University | Syracuse, New York | 1870 | Nonsectarian | 22,948 | $2.097 | Orange | 2013 | |
| ' | Notre Dame, Indiana | 1842 | Catholic | 13,174 | $17.897 | Fighting Irish | 2013 | |
| ' | Louisville, Kentucky | 1798 | Public | 22,139 | $1.008 | Cardinals | 2014 | |
| ' | Dallas, Texas | 1911 | Nonsectarian | 11,842 | $2.122 | Mustangs | 2024 | |
| ' | Berkeley, California | 1868 | Public | 45,699 | $3.112 | Golden Bears | 2024 | |
| Stanford University | Stanford, California | 1891 | Nonsectarian | 18,446 | $37.631 | Cardinal | 2024 |
;Notes:
Former members
In 1971, the University of South Carolina left the ACC to become an independent, later joining the Metro Conference in 1983 and moving to its current home, the Southeastern Conference, in 1991. On July 1, 2014, the University of Maryland departed for the Big Ten Conference.| Institution | Location | Founded | Type | Nickname | Joined | Left | Colors | Current conference |
| University of South Carolina | Columbia, South Carolina | 1801 | Public | Gamecocks | 1953 | 1971 | SEC | |
| University of Maryland, College Park | College Park, Maryland | 1856 | Public | Terrapins | 1953 | 2014 | Big Ten |
;Notes:
Membership map
Membership timeline
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Period = from:1949 till:2035
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id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
id:AssocF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
id:AssocOS value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for another sport only
id:OtherC1 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference
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bar:2 color:Full from:1953 till:end text:Duke
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bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1949 till:1965 text:SoCon
bar:4 color:Full from:1953 till:end text:North Carolina
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bar:5 color:Full from:1953 till:end text:North Carolina State
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bar:6 color:Full from:1953 till:1971 text:South Carolina
bar:6 color:Ind from:1971 till:1983 text:Independent
bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:1983 till:1991 text:Metro
bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:SEC
bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1949 till:1965 text:SoCon
bar:7 color:Full from:1953 till:end text:Wake Forest
bar:8 color:Ind from:1949 till:1953 text:Indep.
bar:8 color:FullxF from:1953 till:1954 text:Virginia
bar:8 color:Full from:1954 till:end
bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:1949 till:1964 text:SEC
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bar:10 color:FullxF from:1991 till:1992 text:Florida State
bar:10 color:Full from:1992 till:end
bar:11 color:Ind from:1949 till:1991 text:Independent
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bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1949 till:1965 text:SoCon
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bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2000 text:Atlantic 10
bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:2000 till:2004 text:Big East
bar:12 color:Full from:2004 till:end text:Virginia Tech
bar:13 color:Ind from:1949 till:1979 text:Independent
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bar:13 color:Full from:2005 till:end text:Boston College
bar:14 color:Ind from:1949 till:1982 text:Independent
bar:14 color:OtherC2 from:1982 till:1995 text:Horizon
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bar:14 color:FullxF from:2013 till:2020 text:Notre Dame
bar:14 color:Full from:2020 till:2021
bar:14 color:Fullxf from: 2021 till:end
bar:15 color:Ind from:1949 till:1976 text:Independent
bar:15 color:OtherC2 from:1976 till:1982 text:Eastern 8
bar:15 color:OtherC1 from:1982 till:2013 text:Big East
bar:15 color:Full from:2013 till:end text:Pittsburgh
bar:16 color:Ind from:1949 till:1979 text:Independent
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bar:16 color:Full from:2013 till:end text:Syracuse
bar:17 color:Ind from:1949 till:1964 text:Independent
bar:17 color:OtherC2 from:1964 till:1975 text:MVC
bar:17 color:OtherC1 from:1975 till:1995 text:Metro
bar:17 color:OtherC2 from:1995 till:2005 text:C-USA
bar:17 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text:Big East
bar:17 shift: color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2014 text:AAC
bar:17 color:Full from:2014 till:end text:Louisville
bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:1949 till:1996 text:SWC
bar:18 color:OtherC2 from:1996 till:2005 text:WAC
bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text:C-USA
bar:18 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2024 text:AAC
bar:18 color:Full from:2024 till:end text:SMU
bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:1949 till:1959 text:PCC
bar:19 color:OtherC2 from:1959 till:2024 text:AAWU Pac-8 Pac-10 Pac-12
bar:19 color:Full from:2024 till:end text:California
bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:1949 till:1959 text:PCC
bar:20 color:OtherC2 from:1959 till:2024 text:AAWU Pac-8 Pac-10 Pac-12
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text:^"Atlantic Coast Conference membership history"
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