After concluding their final season of Pac-12 play, the Bears are turning over a new leaf. For the first time in over a decade, Cal jerseys will now read “ACC” in place of the Pac-12 logo fans are accustomed to. Wednesday, Cal’s full schedule was announced by its new conference, after the Bears’ opponents for the next six seasons were released in October.

With a season full of new beginnings as the Bears find a new home in the ACC, this will be a season with many firsts, but will feature some old rivals as well.

It has already been announced that the Bears will be facing Miami, NC State, Stanford and Syracuse at home, while going on the road to play against Florida State, Pitt, SMU and Wake Forest in the upcoming season. With the ACC’s new conference scheduling model, each program will have eight conference games in the upcoming season, and all 17 teams will play each other at least twice in the next seven years.

Earlier this week, the ACC announced that Cal will be facing Wake Forest in the Bears’ only 2024 Friday night game in Week 11, on Nov. 8. The rest of the schedule was filled in on Wednesday.

The Bears’ two protected matchups — Stanford and SMU, which joined Cal as the ACC’s newest additions in 2024 — will both happen in the last two weeks of the season. The Big Game will continue to be held during the week before Thanksgiving in 2024. Notably, the Bears will be home for seven of their 12 matchups of 2024, going on the road for just four conference games and one nonconference matchup.

The Bears are set to open their season with three non-ACC games, which had been previously announced — a season opener against UC Davis Aug. 31, followed by a road trip to face Auburn (Sept. 7) after hosting the Tigers in 2023. To round out the nonconference schedule before beginning its inaugural ACC season, Cal will host San Diego State Sept. 14.

While Cal has previously faced UC Davis in 2022 and Auburn in 2023, the Bears haven’t seen San Diego State since 2016, when they lost 45-40. The two teams have faced off seven other times, with the all-time record standing at 4-4.

Cal’s ACC opener — of the season and of its conference membership — will come against reigning conference champion, Florida State, Sept. 21 on the road. Heading into a series of new rivalries, the Seminoles will be just one of the teams Cal has never faced.

The Bears will bring the ACC to Memorial Stadium in Week 6, when they host Miami Oct. 5 following a bye week — the first of two. The Bears have faced the Hurricanes four other times, most recently in 2008. Cal has won two of those matchups, 9-7 in 1964 and 24-17 in 2008.

Back on the road Week 7, the Bears will head to Pittsburgh Oct. 12 to take on the Panthers. The two teams have played each other five times, all within an 11-year span from 1955-66, and the Bears will look to create a new rivalry once more.

The latter half of the season features two back-to-back home games, although separated by another bye week. Following their trip to Pitt, the Bears will host NC State and then revisit an old Pac-12 rivalry, hosting Oregon State in another nonconference matchup Oct. 26.

Much like Florida State, this will be Cal’s first stint against the Wolfpack.

Another bye week in Week 10 will give the Bears a chance to regroup before facing the last third of its schedule — the Beavers followed by Wake Forest, Syracuse, Stanford and SMU.

Cal’s Friday night matchup against Wake Forest Nov. 8 will see yet another first-time matchup — the two teams will meet for the first time in North Carolina as the Bears take on the Deacon Demons.

Cal will close out its 2024 season with a homestand against Syracuse and, of course, the Big Game, before it hits the road to end the inaugural ACC season against SMU. The Bears have played Syracuse two prior times — a 1966 and 1967 home-and-home series — with the all-time record sitting at 1-1.

As part of its move to the ACC, the Bears get to retain their historic rivalry against the Cardinal, and will look to extend their Big Game win streak to four after winning three straight games between 2021 and 2023.

Ending the season with a fellow ACC newcomer, the Bears will face off against SMU, which will be just the second time the two schools meet, and the first since 1957 — a home matchup that Cal lost.

The ACC Football Championship Game is scheduled for Dec. 7 and will be played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

Home games in bold

Aug. 31 – UC Davis

Sept. 7 – at Auburn

Sept. 14 – San Diego State

Sept. 21 – at Florida State

Sept. 28 – BYE

Oct. 5 – Miami

Oct. 12 – at Pittsburgh

Oct. 19 – NC State

Oct. 26 – Oregon State

Nov. 2 – BYE

Nov. 8 – at Wake Forest (Friday)

Nov. 16 – Syracuse

Nov. 23 – Stanford

Nov. 30 – at SMU

Dec. 7 – ACC Championship (Bank of America Stadium | Charlotte, North Carolina)