CHARLOTTE — For the first time in 100 years, UNC basketball and N.C. State won’t play two games during the regular season.
One of the ACC’s oldest rivalries, the Tar Heels and Wolfpack are scheduled to play Feb. 17 at Lenovo Center, but N.C. State won’t play in Chapel Hill for the first time since 1919.
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“Crazy. Crazy. I hate it. I hate it that we can only get one game,” senior guard Seth Trimble said, shaking his head inside the Hilton Uptown Charlotte on Tuesday, Oct. 7, during ACC Tipoff, the conference’s annual basketball media days ahead of the 2025-26 season.
“I think those are some of the most fun games of the year at theirs and at ours. But I guess the game will mean even more now. Simple as that. We can’t dwell on not being able to play two games. We just gotta go get this one.”
Meeting twice every season since 1920, the Tar Heels and Wolfpack have played 249 games over the last 112 years. The Tobacco Road rivals are only playing each other once because of the ACC’s shift to an 18-game league schedule.
With the changes, UNC and N.C. State are only guaranteed two annual games against their primary partners. For the Tar Heels, that opponent is Duke. For the Wolfpack, it’s Wake Forest.
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The ACC, which has rolled out a 20-game league schedule since the 2019-20 season, last featured an 18-game format from 2012-19. The change also allows teams the possibility of bolstering their nonconference schedules with two more games against quality opponents.
“A lot of things have changed,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said at ACC Tipoff.
“Obviously, when I played in the ACC, there was only eight (teams). We played each other twice, everyone was home-and-home, and I really liked that. But all you can do is play the schedule that you’ve been given. And so, really excited about competing against all the ACC teams and looking forward to the season.”
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips discusses conference schedule, rivalry games, NCAA Tournament
Before the ACC men’s basketball teams started their media obligations on Oct. 7, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was asked about the changes to the league schedule.
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“We struggled with getting to where we ended up, 18-game conference schedule, because of what you just described,” Phillips said.
“The history and tradition of the league is as good as any league in the country. It just is. As I said before, it’s the premier basketball league in the country from a women’s and men’s perspective. So we didn’t take it lightly.
“We sat down, and we looked at what are the must-have rivalries that we need to try to make sure that we continue, and then where are the ones that from time to time we will re-engage those rivalries before the next couple of years we may have to take a bit of a pause. That’s hard to do.”
The decision comes after the ACC got four of its 18 teams in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. At 22%, it was the conference’s lowest percentage of teams to make March Madness since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
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“It has brought us the ability to schedule a little differently in the nonconference, so I like where we ended up on that. It also is a driver, quite candidly, about trying to get more times in the NCAA Tournament,” Phillips said.
“. … We’ve scheduled to prepare for teams to win an ACC championship and a national championship.”
Rodd Baxley covers North Carolina Tar Heels athletics for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley. Got questions regarding UNC? Send them to rbaxley@fayobserver.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: What UNC basketball said about changes to rivalry vs NC State
