For the first time in the 2025-26 season, the Tar Heels will play a game against another team, and they’ll do so in a way that’ll be available for us to see.
Ever since the NCAA got rid of the so-called “secret scrimmages,” schools have taken advantage of having exhibition games against other big schools to get a real sense of where they stand before the games actually count. They also get to do so in a real environment, as opposed to a closed gym and glorified practices. The Tar Heels took advantage of this
last year by traveling to Memphis, and now will do so again by heading all the way out to Salt Lake City, Utah in order to face BYU.
The neutral site allows for more revenue to be gathered — the women’s team will be doing something similar next week against South Carolina in Atlanta — and it recreates the atmosphere of what it would be like to travel out to a site for a game. Going out west will also be helpful for the Tar Heels, as they have the Stanford/Cal duo to contend with in mid-January, so how to handle the travel won’t be a foreign concept to them.
The competition will also be strong. This BYU squad enters the season ranked eighth in the preseason AP poll, preparing to do battle in a stacked Big XII. They are coming off a Sweet 16 appearance last year, and snagged the overall number one prospect in AJ Dybantsa. Folks are actually looking forward to the clash of two of the top recruits in the 2025 class in Dybantsa and Caleb Wilson.
Up to this point, if you wanted to catch the Tar Heels playing in any sort of preseason game, it would have required you to head to Chapel Hill for the Blue/White Scrimmage and deal with post-Clemson traffic, or you’d have had to head out to Cherokee and see them play in a gym in western North Carolina. Now? This game will be streamed out to the public, and the Tar Heel Sports Network will be there on-site to call the action.
Speaking of the Tar Heel Sports Network, a tip of the hat to play-by-play man Jones Angell. He’s going to be calling this game on the radio starting at 9 PM Eastern out in Salt Lake City, and then will be back in the press box at Kenan Stadium for the Virginia game that kicks off at noon. The flight may not be as bad him as it would be for someone who has to go commercially, but still, that’s a lot of work in less than 24 hours.
It is worth noting the Tar Heel Sports Network will be there, as on the Carolina Insider podcast, Adam Lucas noted that the call for the ESPN stream will be coming from BYU announcers. Thus, things may be a little one sided, and with the action being streaming only, you may want another way to listen to the action.
With that said, if you aren’t going to be at the Delta Center watching the action, here’s how you can follow along with the Tar Heels:
- Time: 9 PM ET
- Location: Delta Center — Salt Lake City, UT
- Radio: Tar Heel Sports Network with Jones Angell, Tyler Zeller, and Adam Lucas. Here’s a list of affiliates airing the THSN broadcast. You can also listen to them on GoHeels.com, The Varsity Network, and Tune In.
- Streaming: ESPN’s broadcast of the game is streaming only and can be seen on their app and/or website.
