Former ACC Stars To Enjoy Huge (100 Million-Plus) Super Bowl TV Spotlight

Former ACC Stars To Enjoy Huge (100M-Plus)
Television Spotlight At Super Bowl On Sunday

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network

When the National Football League hosts its annual Super Bowl on Sunday, and likely draws the largest American television audience of the entire 2025 calendar year, more than a dozen products of Atlantic Coast Conference schools will be part of the show, as members of the participating teams’ active rosters.

In most years, the three most-watched American television programs — of any kind, not just sports — are the Super Bowl and the two conference championship contests. In 2024, the Super Bowl matching Kansas City and San Francisco drew an average audience of almost 124 million viewers in the United States, and the AFC/NFC title games attracted more than 50 million viewers each.

For comparison, the most-watched 2024 program beyond the sports genre (a presidential debate) drew about 20 million viewers and ranked behind 11 NFL contests, including six regular-season games.

The Super Bowl also is broadcast in almost 200 countries beyond the United States, in more than 30 languages, significantly supplementing its total audience. Last year, the NFL estimated an outside-the-USA audience of more than 62.5 million total viewers (always a much larger number than “average viewers”), with the largest contributions coming from Mexico, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia.

This year, in Super Bowl LIX, the 17-3 Philadelphia Eagles will face the 17-2 Kansas City Chiefs (Sun., 6:30 p.m., FOX). The same franchises went head-to-head in the championship game two years ago, with the Chiefs winning a 38-35 thriller.

Kansas City is seeking to become the first franchise ever to win three consecutive Super Bowl titles. Even going back to 1933, when the NFL played a championship game (it wasn’t called the “Super Bowl” until the late 1960s) for the first time, no franchise has captured three straight league crowns.

The ACC products who will be in starting roles on Sunday are Eagles offensive guard Mekhi Becton (Louisville), Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker (Georgia Tech), Chiefs cornerback Chamarri Conner (Virginia Tech), Chiefs wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins (Clemson), Eagles linebacker Josh Sweat (Florida State; pictured above) and Chiefs offensive guard Joe Thuney (NC State).

In addition, although they never competed in the ACC themselves, Eagles second-team tight end Grant Calcaterra (SMU), Chiefs safety Justin Reid (Stanford) and Chiefs return specialist Nikko Remigio (Cal) will play significant roles while representing programs that joined the league in 2024.

At the beginning of this year’s NFL playoffs, current ACC schools had more than 160 players on the 12 participating teams’ rosters, including those on practice squads or injured/reserve lists.

The list below includes only those players affiliated with the two remaining NFL playoff teams.

Players On Super Bowl LIX Rosters
(Products of Current ACC Schools)

Boston College (0)

none

California (2)

Nikko Remigio, starting KR/PR (backup WR), Kansas City Chiefs
McKade Mettauer, backup OG, Kansas City Chiefs (reserve/injured)

Clemson (5)

DeAndre Hopkins, starting WR, Kansas City Chiefs
Jeremiah Trotter Jr., second-team LB, Philadelphia Eagles
Will Shipley, third-team RB, Philadelphia Eagles
KJ Henry, backup DE, Philadelphia Eagles (practice squad)
Justyn Ross, backup WR, Kansas City Chiefs (practice squad)

Duke (1)

Noah Gray, second-team TE, Kansas City Chiefs

Florida State (4)

Josh Sweat, starting LB, Philadelphia Eagles
Derrick Nnadi, second-team DT, Kansas City Chiefs
Johnny Wilson, second-team WR, Philadelphia Eagles
Fabien Lovett Sr., backup DT, Kansas City Chiefs (practice squad)

Georgia Tech (2)

Harrison Butker, starting PK, Kansas City Chiefs
EJ Jenkins, third-team TE, Philadelphia Eagles

Louisville (1)

Mekhi Becton, starting RG, Philadelphia Eagles

Miami (1)

Deon Bush, backup S, Kansas City Chiefs (practice squad)

North Carolina (0)

none

NC State (1)

Joe Thuney, starting LG, Kansas City Chiefs

Pitt (3)

Avonte Maddox, second-team CB, Philadelphia Eagles
Kenny Pickett, second-team QB, Philadelphia Eagles
AJ Woods, backup CB, Philadelphia Eagles (practice squad)

SMU (3)

Grant Calcaterra, second-team TE, Philadelphia Eagles
Danny Gray, backup WR, Philadelphia Eagles (practice squad)
Rashee Rice, backup WR, Kansas City Chiefs (reserve/injured)

Stanford (3)