There are a lot of people out there that prefer college football over the NFL, and whenever you ask one of them why, they almost always fall back on the heightened passion within their fandom that the professional game has simply never seemed to replicate—and said passion is perhaps at its peak when we’re talking rivalry games.
It is with that in mind that I have decided to embark on a journey, aiming to discover the top rivalry game in each Power 4 conference this upcoming CFB season, and when doing so alphabetically, the first league on the agenda is the ACC.
But first, a disclaimer: The criteria behind today’s choice and all future ones has nothing to do with which rivalry is the “coolest” or most iconic. Rather, it is based on a combination of historical relevance, competitive relevance, and current implications between conference foes and conference foes only.
With all of that said, let’s finally dig into what I think is the Atlantic Coast Conference’s paramount pairing for 2025: Duke at Clemson.
This matchup brings a lot more to the table than meets the eye
Look, at first glance, I get it—Clemson rules the ACC with an iron fist for a decade, and the best I see for them is a battle with a basketball school? Must be an even slower year than usual, huh? Believe it or not though, Duke actually makes for a far bigger obstacle than it gets credit for.
I’ve already given the Blue Devils love for their likelihood to succeed in 2025 when held next to their Tobacco Road counterparts, but we also have to remember that they showed us just a couple of years ago that not even the Tigers are immune to their uppercut.
Now, for the first time since then, the two squads are reconvening, only the Tigers seem to be as prepared as they can be to guarantee they don’t sleep on the Devils again. This is not just because the rematch will be in Death Valley, but also because it will serve as Clemson’s Homecoming game, with Dabo and his crew fresh off a bye.
So in review, the 2025 installment of Clemson-Duke is between two of the ACC’s founding members who gave us an absolute jaw-dropper the last time they met, and appears to hold no less of a David-and-Goliath dynamic. Folks, showdowns like that are what college football is all about.
And yeah, Clemson is certainly the favorite in the equation today (as it should be), but if we end up getting a bombshell like the one we got in 2023, the potential impact could be defining for both parties. Therefore, I still see the rivalry between the Tigers and Blue Devils as equally pivotal to any other that the ACC could possibly provide us this fall.