One of the byproducts of NC State and others voting to allow SMU, California, and Stanford into the ACC was the 18-team conference becoming pretty unwieldy. The conference tried a 20-game conference schedule in the beginning, but it ultimately became too much for schools and cost valuable out-of-conference matchups that would help both the bottom line and the NET rating when trying to get into the NCAA Tournament.
So the ACC opted to go back to an 18-team schedule, and with that only one school could
be guaranteed to play another school twice. UNC/Duke is the rivalry that built ESPN2 and as their twice-yearly matchups consistently show up in the top of college basketball ratings, the conference wasn’t going to give that up. Thus, the other local rivalry against NC State was deemed unimportant enough to only occur once a season. At least as a conference matchup.
While several UNC fans found this fitting considering NC State was the reason for the size of the league, both sides had plenty that felt it was just wrong for this matchup that preceded the ACC and matched up two of the state’s premier public institutions to only happen once a season. At the same time, in this new world of college athletics, any chance to make a little extra revenue is something that has to be examined. What’s the easiest way to make extra revenue? A neutral court event.
Between this, money from the state legislature thanks to the legalized sports betting in the state, and the space for both schools in their non-conference schedule, the two teams have agreed to meet at the Tobacco Road Classic in Greensboro for the next two years. The first will be December 15th this year.
It’ll be the second revenue-generating event for Carolina in Greensboro this season, with the first being the opening exhibition of the season against the Trojans of USC. Carolina also will be playing in neutral court events in Charlotte against West Virginia, New York’s Madison Square Garden against Kentucky, and Nashville against Illinois. The non-conference schedule also includes Georgia, Marshall, Arkansas, and Butler in the Smith Center while they head to Washington, DC to play Georgetown.
The rest of the non-conference schedule was released earlier today. The first time the Tar Heels will play in Chapel Hill will be an exhibition against Charlotte on October 27th, and then the season itself opens on November 2nd against Western Carolina. All in all the Tar Heels will play six regular season games in Chapel Hill before heading to Charlotte against West Virginia. That residency in the Smith Center will be the polar opposite in December, as Carolina will play just three non-conference games in Chapel Hill, and it’ll be about two weeks between games between Butler and The Citadel.
No TV info was announced for the NC State event, though as a non-conference neutral court event, it would likely go to the highest bidder. The date of December 15th is after the end of the college football regular season and right before the start of the College Football Playoff, so it’ll be interesting to see where the broadcast lands.
Tickets will go on sale September 10th. Prices weren’t announced but based on the listings for the exhibition matchup, fans should be ready to pay premium prices for this event.
