The ACC Championship Game is an annual American college football game held in early December by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) each year to determine its football champion. From its inception in 2005 to 2022, the game pit the champion of the Coastal Division against the champion of the Atlantic Division in a game that follows the conclusion of the regular season. The current champions are the Clemson Tigers of the Atlantic Division.
The Atlantic Division was represented by either Clemson or Florida State in twelve of fifteen years through 2019, including eleven straight from 2009 to 2019, and five straight by Clemson from 2015 to 2019. The Coastal Division was represented by either Georgia Tech or Virginia Tech for the first eight games from 2005 to 2012, but from 2013 to 2019 all seven Coastal teams each represented the division after Virginia won in 2019. Louisville, North Carolina State, and Syracuse have not won the Atlantic Division. Clemson in 2018 became the first team to win four consecutive ACC Championship Games, on the heels of FSU winning three straight.
The Atlantic Division winners went on to win the ACC Championship Game for nine consecutive years from 2011 to 2019, and are 11–5 in the game overall. The Coastal teams won four consecutive years from 2007 to 2010, but did not win again until 2021.
Starting from the 2023 season onwards, the game will instead pit the two ACC teams with the highest conference winning percentage against each other, with divisions being scrapped entirely.
For the 2020 season, Notre Dame joined the ACC for conference play in football due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ACC decided to use a division-less format for the game. Instead of representatives from two divisions, the two teams with the best conference records from a ten-game conference schedule earned a spot in the game.
The ACC Championship Game is held at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina each year, after being held in Florida (Jacksonville and Tampa) for its first five years. It is to remain a permanent fixture in Charlotte through at least 2030. The game's corporate sponsor was Dr Pepper from 2005 through the 2018 game.
History
Before the 2004 college football season, the Atlantic Coast Conference determined its champion via round-robin play during the course of the regular season and there was no conference championship game. In 2004, the Atlantic Coast conference added two teams—Virginia Tech and Miami—expanding the league to 11 teams. At the time, college football teams were limited by the NCAA to 11 regular-season games, three or four of which typically featured teams outside the home team's conference. Following the 2004 season, the league added a 12th team—Boston College—and became eligible to hold a championship game at the conclusion of the 2005 season.
The conference was divided into two divisions of six teams each. The team with the best conference record in each division is selected to participate in the championship game. In the inaugural championship game, which took place at the end of the 2005 college football season, the Florida State Seminoles defeated Virginia Tech 27–22 at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. In the 2006 game, two other teams faced off as Georgia Tech played Wake Forest. Wake defeated Georgia Tech 9–6. For the 2007 game, Jacksonville was awarded a one-year extension as host, and the game remained in Jacksonville. Virginia Tech returned to the ACC Football Championship game and faced off against Boston College. Tech won the game, 30–16, and returned to the championship in 2008 to defeat Boston College again 30–12. In 2009, Georgia Tech defeated Clemson, 39–34, but was forced to vacate the ACC championship by the NCAA.
Following the 2007 game the Gator Bowl Committee—organizers of the ACC Football Championship game in Jacksonville—announced they would not seek another contract extension due to falling attendance. With Jacksonville's withdrawal from future site selection, the ACC selected Tampa, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina as future sites of the game. The 2008 and 2009 games were held in Tampa, while the 2010 and 2011 games were held in Charlotte.
On June 28, 2022, the ACC announced that with the NCAA Division I Council ruling that conferences would no longer be required to maintain divisions in order to hold a conference championship, it would be eliminating its divisions for the 2023 season and onwards, opting instead for a 3-5-5 scheduling format instead. This means that the ACC Championship will no longer be determined by the two division winners, but will instead have the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage face each other.