The road to an ACC Championship always goes through Clemson, but it can be a long one for schools located outside the Carolinas. 

The days of bussing to multiple road games are over. Cross-country travel is now standard fare in college football, and it isn’t limited to marquee non-conference road games. This is especially true with teams jumping to new conferences on an annual basis, the geography of which doesn’t always make the most sense. 

With conference realignment advancing rapidly and geographical borders falling across college football, Bookies.com looked at the number of miles every ACC team is set to travel in 2023. The dispersion is significant, and things like jet lag and travel fatigue can be hugely important in a sport where one bad week will have you on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff picture. 

We calculated the total distance and average length of road trip for all ACC teams by tallying the aerial distance between campuses and neutral-site games. It’s no surprise to see that geographical outliers have the longest ways to go in 2023, but it could have a big impact on the ACC college football betting race. 

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Clemson is currently a slight +145 favorite to win the ACC on betting apps, but Florida State is right behind them at +150. And the Seminoles will have to embrace a road warrior mentality to reach their potential. 

The Seminoles will travel a total of 5,872 miles next season – third most in the ACC. And travel will play a factor in what could be the biggest game of the season. 

While most Power 5 contenders open with at least one or two home games to start things off, Florida State will make relatively short, 437-mile trip to play LSU for the season opener at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. They get Southern Miss at home in Week 2, but a Sept. 16 matchup at Boston College looms large. 

That’s the longest trip of the season for the Seminoles, a 2,193-mile round-trip journey to Chestnut Hill for a game in which they’ll be heavily favored. The problem is they play at Clemson the next week (610 miles), and coaches will need to ensure all the early travel doesn’t have any impact on preparation or energy levels. 

Easier said than done. 

Clemson has two lengthy road trips to Syracuse (1,361 miles) and Miami (1,247 miles), but they have a home game and a bye week in between to adjust. With just 3,810 total miles and no difficult back-to-backs, it looks like travel won’t be an issue for Clemson at all. 

The same can be said for North Carolina and North Carolina State. The Tar Heels are 10-1 to win the division and will travel just 2,041 miles next season. The longest trip is only 675 miles to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech, and they’re only 222 miles from a neutral-site, non-conference matchup with South Carolina to kick off the season in Charlotte. 

North Carolina State barely has to leave the neighborhood in 2023 and could pull off a few upsets as a result. After a 1,080-mile round-trip jaunt for a non-conference trip with Connecticut, they don’t have any trips longer than 315 miles and should be among the most well-rested teams in the conference all season.