Lucas: Schedule Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

The new world of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball schedule releases has substantially changed the best way to evaluate them. We already knew the nonconference schedule and the specific ACC opponents the Tar Heels would face. Today's release just gave us the order in which those league foes will be played.
Fans will have to stay vigilant to keep up with exact dates (several of the midweek games are listed as either Tuesday OR Wednesday) and times. We fully realize that's not an ideal scenario, but it's the way the league chooses to operate with the television partners.
With the new scheduling format, there are a few must-checks: first, every ACC team doesn't play one other ACC team. The Tar Heels don't face Boston College. That's a negative in the sense that Carolina should have a decent chance to get a conference win against the Eagles, but it's also a positive because games against BC don't draw many eyeballs, and viewership equals dollars in the new ACC revenue arrangement.
Next question: who do you play twice? Likely for as long as the league exists, the Tar Heels are always going to play Duke twice. That's instantly the two biggest games on the conference basketball calendar, two guaranteed marquee games, and two certain contests with big viewership numbers. The other home-and-home is with Syracuse. The Orange aren't the ratings draw the league wants you to believe, but Carolina has had good success against the 'Cuse, going 14-4 against them since they joined the ACC. That includes 6-3 at the former Carrier Dome, which always has a healthy UNC turnout, so this isn't an awful road game.
And then: what are your Saturday-Monday turnarounds? Carolina has two of them, and both of them have a home game in the Monday slot, which is more favorable than going on the road on the back end of the short turnaround. The first Saturday-Monday is a road trip to Georgia Tech followed by a home game against Syracuse. The second is a road trip to Syracuse followed by the lone meeting of the year against Louisville, which should be a fellow contender for a top ACC finish. That combination, coming in late February, should be an important factor in the league standings.
And finally on the list of must-checks, especially given the expanded league: how's the travel? Carolina will go on the road to the three teams that are the farthest from Chapel Hill in the first three weeks of 2026. That includes a Jan. 3 date at SMU (never bad to play a road game when students aren't in session, and the Heels then get a week off before Wake Forest comes to the Smith Center) and Jan. 13/14 and 17 dates at Stanford and Cal. It's ludicrous to fly cross-country to play conference basketball games, but that's college sports in 2025. The Heels will stay in the Eastern time zone after that game at Cal.
As we already knew, this is a heavy road schedule. The Heels didn't make the biggest trips last year, so they already knew they'd get those this season. They also get journeys that require a plane trip to Syracuse, Miami and Georgia Tech, plus the in-between jaunt to Charlottesville (it's almost as quick to bus as it is to load the plane, make the short flight, and then unload the plane).
There are only four Saturday ACC home games on the schedule: Jan. 10 against Wake, Feb. 7 against Duke, Feb. 14 against Pitt and Feb. 28 against Virginia Tech. Those are traditionally the best atmospheres of the season, but if the Heels play well early in the year, they'll create some enthusiasm for the weeknight tilts later in the season.
The Dec. 30 or 31 home game against Florida State could be one of those sneakily highly sought-after tickets if people still have families in town for the holidays and are looking for activities to get out of the house. Of course, on those dates there is also potential competition from bowl games and New Year's Eve. Carolina played a New Year's Day game at Louisville last year (the Cards had a great crowd) and haven't played at home on 12/30 or 12/31 since Dec. 30, 2019, when over 20,000 came to the Smith Center to watch the Heels defeat Yale. There hasn't been a New Year's Eve game in the Smith Center since Dec. 31, 2013, when Carolina defeated UNCW in the Happy Blue Year game (Carolina wore blue at home in that contest).
The Tar Heels must play well on the road early. Three of the first five conference games and five of the first eight are away from the Smith Center. Of course, Carolina already will have played at Kentucky, so those won't be their first road tests. The flip side to the road-heavy beginning is three straight home games in late February and early March. It's the third three-game ACC homestand of the Hubert Davis era—the 2024 Heels went 3-0 against Miami, NC State and Notre Dame late in that very successful campaign, and the 2022 team used a 3-0 stretch against Virginia Tech, BC and State to create some momentum after a couple of road losses.
In the era of mass turnover and with four new coaches in the league (new FSU coach Luke Loucks will coach his first ACC game against the Tar Heels), it's extremely difficult to know exactly what to expect from most ACC opponents. But it appears as though an early/mid February stretch of a home game against Duke, road trip to Miami, back home against Pitt and then on the road at NC State will be important.
Now that there's a schedule, the next question is how you can get tickets. The Carolina ticket office expects that single game tickets will be available in early October. Keep an eye on UNC athletics social media for more details as the date approaches.

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