But One Rivalry Game This Season
A new Atlantic Coast Conference scheduling format reduces the NC State-North Carolina basketball games to one this season. Is that good or bad for the Wolfpack?
I’m not sure the NC State Wolfpack men’s basketball team and fans along with sports writer opinion columnists should be concerned, or up-in-arms, that the Wolfpack will not play two regular-season games this coming season against the North Carolina Tar Heels, especially the one in Chapel Hill.
As it turns out, playing North Carolina once is rarely good for the Wolfpack soul. Twice can be more than two-times the misery, if that’s possible.
The one game on the schedule for the 2025-26 season’s Atlantic Coast Conference born match-up will be played between the two rivals in Raleigh’s Lenovo Center Hockey Arena which will be disguised as a basketball coliseum for the contest, or maybe no-contest.
There will not be a visit to Chapel Hill for NC State this season unless the North Carolina General Assembly passes a law requiring the two schools to play each other twice a season, one at home and one on the other team’s home court. I wouldn’t put it past the legislators to do that.
There’ll be just one game because of a reduced ACC schedule, going from 20 league games per school to 18 conference games. With 18 basketball teams in the ACC, each team will play 16 other league teams once and two of those twice, leaving off one (different) team annually. In the case of NC State, the Wolfpack will play Wake Forest and Virginia twice this coming season and not play California at all, saving travel time and money for one of the two.
Luke DeCock, the sports opinion writer for the News & Observer, recently penned an excellent column—New ACC men’s basketball schedule trashes a century of NC basketball history—about the new scheduling formula, condemning the situation that State and Carolina will play each other but once this season and maybe for many years to come.
Maybe, in future years the ACC schedule has State and Carolina playing twice, but that, if my math is correct, could be only once every 17 years, disheartening to a rivalry that includes 249 games, more than five times the difference (49 years) between the ages of UNC football coach Bill Belichick, 73, and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, 24. (Had to get that in.) State and Carolina played each other at least twice a season since the rivalry began.
While I agree with much of what Luke wrote and others are saying, taking the same stance that State-Carolina needs to play home and away games every season, I can also offer the other side. It has to do with wins and losses between the two schools. Against the Tar Heels, especially from early in the birth of the ACC, the Wolfpack has not fared very well.
Starting with David Thompson’s final year with NC State, and the Wolfpack coming off a 9-game winning streak against North Carolina late in the 1974-75 season, consider these wins and losses (again, if my math is correct) through the 2024-2025 season:
8: NC State wins in Chapel Hill
43: NC State losses in Chapel Hill
17: NC State wins in Raleigh
33: NC State losses in Raleigh
3: NC State wins at a neutral site
12: NC State losses at a neutral site
28: NC State total wins against UNC since the 1974-75 season
88: NC State losses to UNC during that time span
28-33: NC State’s record against UNC January 19, 1954 to 1974-75 mark
31-47: NC State home record versus UNC from 1954 to now
44-106: NC State away and neutral sites record versus UNC 1954 to now
1-9: NC State record at Chapel Hill In the last 10 games
2-18: NC State record at Chapel Hill in the last 20 games
5-15: NC State record at Chapel Hill in the 20 years prior to 20 years ago
7-33: NC State record at Chapel Hill in the last 40 seasons
NC State’s record—home, away, and neutral sites—against North Carolina doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Not at all!
So, maybe the new ACC scheduling format is what’s best for NC State. Maybe the North Carolina needs to be that team NC State doesn’t play at all each season. Instead of one game a year, maybe no games a season is what’s best.
The State-Carolina basketball game—in Raleigh or in Chapel Hill—might be better for television than Boston College at Cal-Berkley, but, obviously when looking at the records of wins and losses, it’s not good for the Wolfpack’s self-esteem, and every Mama will tell you that good self-esteem is good for their children.
Maybe, it’s time to cry “wolf” or yell “uncle” and not play that game at all. What DeCock wrote in his newspaper-media outlet column is right on, but he didn’t look at the records, or maybe he did but he didn’t want to bring it up.
On the other hand, maybe, starting with this season, Will Wade, the new basketball coach at NC State will out flank his counter-part at North Carolina, Hubert Davis, and start and sustain a winning streak at home and away (oops, not a NC State at UNC game this season) that will dissolve the hurt and angst NC State fans have playing North Carolina in basketball.