Orlando to Host 2016 ACC Championship

The longtime Russell Athletic Bowl partner conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, announced today that its 2016 Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game will be played at Camping World Stadium on December 3, 2016. The game matches up the regular season winner of the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions. The game will air in primetime and kick off at 7:45 p.m. EST (if carried by ESPN) or 8 p.m. EST (if carried by ABC).

Via FloridaCitrusSports.com, here’s Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan on bringing the game to Orlando.

We’re thrilled to bring more bigtime college football to Orlando. The Atlantic Coast Conference has been a tremendous partner of ours for decades and we are grateful for the opportunity to bring their showcase football event to Camping World Stadium. We’re also grateful for our partners in the community who helped make this happen, especially the Florida High School Athletic Association for their flexibility and teamwork to make the stadium available for this game.

The ACC has won 10 of the past 13 Russell Athletic Bowls dating back to 2003 and has outscored opponents 333-184 during that span. The conference’s tie to the bowl dates back to 1994 when the Virginia appeared in a losing effort to future ACC member Boston College, 31-13. Florida State knocked off Penn State in the inaugural Russell Athletic Bowl (then titled Blockbuster Bowl) in 1990, one year before they joined the ACC.

The current two top-ranked teams in the conference, No. 3 Louisville and No. 5 Clemson, are the last two ACC schools to win the bowl game doing so in 2013 and 2014 respectively. The two squads will square off against each other with the winner taking the lead in the Atlantic Division.