The ACC released its football schedule Wednesday after months of speculation about how a season may look in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Along with the rest of the ACC member schools, NC State is scheduled to play an 11-game schedule that includes 10 conference games and one non-conference matchup.

The Wolfpacker broke down the Pack's unique 2020 schedule:

NC State will play all seven teams in the ACC Coastal Division in the 2020 football schedule. Only three of its 10 conference games will come against opponents in the Pack's normal Atlantic Division.

This should give reason to celebrate for Wolfpack fans. Ever since the ACC football divisions were created, the Pack faithful howled about the challenge of having to face traditional conference powers Clemson and Florida State on an annual basis.

It's important to note that divisions will have no impact on ACC football in 2020. The conference is being treated as one division with all 15 teams competing for the top two spots in the league standings with a chance to play in the ACC Championship game on the line.

If this one-year experiment turns out to be a success, the league could consider a format without divisions moving forward.

For the first time since 1970, NC State will not face Clemson in a regular season football contest. The traditional ACC rivalry known as the Textile Bowl has been played 88 times since 1899.

While the Wolfpack has given the Tigers some close calls in recent years, avoiding the road trip to Death Valley tremendously lightens the load of the conference schedule. Since 2004, Clemson has won 15 of its 16 meetings against NC State.

Notre Dame and Louisville, arguably the second- and third-best teams in the conference behind Clemson, are notably absent in the Wolfpack's ACC schedule.

While the Pack was not originally scheduled to face Notre Dame, its season opener was supposed to be against Atlantic Division foe Louisville in a Thursday night road matchup.

NC State is the only team in the 2020 ACC schedule that does not have to play Clemson or Notre Dame in the regular season.

A state champion could be crowned in the ACC this season with all four of the league's North Carolina schools scheduled to face one another in 2020.

NC State plays UNC and Wake Forest on an annual basis, but the Pack is only scheduled to face Duke once every six years due to divisional alignments. The last time the Wolfpack swept the Tobacco Road trio came in 2008 when it beat Duke, Wake Forest and North Carolina in consecutive weeks.

NC State saw the highest jump in its odds to win the ACC Championship after the league's new schedule was released Wednesday.

The Wolfpack is still only the ninth favorite team to win the conference in the eyes of Las Vegas, but it saw its chances improve from +8000 to +4000 simply based on the schedule. Considering NC State lost road trips to Clemson and Louisville, and avoided adding a game against Notre Dame, the Pack's odds jump is the reaction to a much lighter schedule than was originally planned.

For context, a $100 bet on NC State at +4000 odds would win $4,000 if successful. The previous odds would have won $8,000 on a $100 bet.

NC State's 2020 schedule will present several conference opponents with unfamiliar faces. The Wolfpack hasn't played:

- Duke since 2013

- Virginia Tech since 2015

- Miami since 2016

- Pittsburgh since 2017

The freshmen playing in the NC State/Duke game were in sixth grade the last time the two schools met on the football field.

Distance in miles to each scheduled road game:

-North Carolina (23 miles)

-Virginia (188 miles)

-Virginia Tech (186 miles)

-Pittsburgh (496 miles)

-Syracuse (639 miles)

Total: 1,532 miles

The league's schedule release offered no insight as to who the Pack's lone non-conference game will come against.

The ACC is incentivized to keep its scheduled games against the SEC with the traditional in-state rivalries between the two conferences, but the SEC nixed that by going with a conference-only slate.

Games that were already on NC State's original schedule:

-Duke

-Florida State

-Wake Forest

-@ North Carolina

-@ Syracuse

Games Lost:

-@ Clemson

-@ Louisville

-Boston College

Games added:

-Georgia Tech

-Miami

-@ Virginia

-@ Virginia Tech

-@ Pittsburgh

North Carolina -- 3

Florida -- 2

Virginia -- 2

New York -- 1

Pennsylvania -- 1

Georgia -- 1

TBD -- 1

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