CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina opens up the 2019-2020 season Wednesday night against an ACC opponent, something the program hasn’t done in 53 years.

The Tar Heels host Notre Dame at the Smith Center in their first of a 20-game league schedule the ACC implemented in 2016 to coincide with the launch of the ACC Network, which made its debut on August 22.

While UNC head coach Roy Williams has known about the move to a bigger conference schedule for a few years now, he isn’t a big fan of it and doesn’t remember being asked his opinion on it by the ACC when they first considered making the change.

“We’re like mushrooms, throw the crap to us in the corner and hope it grows, I don’t know if I ever heard anything about it,” Williams said Tuesday at a press conference at the Smith Center advancing Wednesday’s opener. “But, again, everybody’s got the schedule you’ve got to play but I think everybody knows I don’t like the 20-game schedule.”

UNC hasn’t played a conference opponent in a season-opener since Dec. 5, 1966 when it faced Clemson in Carmichael Auditorium. Former head coach Dean Smith’s team beat the Tigers, 76-65, and later became Smith’s first team to reach the Final Four.

For fans and neutral spectators, starting the season against a league foe certainly increases the entertainment value. At the same time, however, it provides a greater challenge for the teams that actually have to play the game, meaning Williams has had to work harder than usual to prepare his group.

“I think there’s more of a sense of urgency than there would be if it was somebody else and that’s not comfortable,” Williams said. “I don’t like it, but it’s the schedule.”

Still, Williams isn’t as critical about the start of the season as he could be. Whether he likes it or not, he can’t do anything about it now and has to prepare his players to be ready to play against a veteran-laden Fighting Irish team that returns all five starters from a year ago.

Compared to Notre Dame, the Tar Heels are extremely inexperienced. They lost four of their five starters and their top five leading scorers from last season, making this one of the more inexperienced team’s the program has had in years. That only raises Williams’ level of concern playing such an important opener.

“If it were reversed right now, if I was like (Notre Dame head coach) Michael (Brey) and had all five starters back, it wouldn’t be bothering me as much as it is with Garrison being the only starter, so a lot of that part is personal,” he said.

The only returning starter from last year’s team is junior forward Garrison Brooks, who averaged 7.9 points and 5.6 rebounds in 23.0 minutes a game. Brooks is UNC’s most experienced player and, although he’s only faced Northern Iowa and Wofford in season-openers in his time in Chapel Hill, isn’t as outwardly bothered by starting the year off against Notre Dame as his head coach is.

“Yea, it’s fine, it doesn’t bother me,” Brooks said. “It’s a really serious game, it counts for a lot, I think every game counts for a lot. It counts for a little bit more but it’s fine.”

His teammates will need to have that same attitude Wednesday, too, as the Fighting Irish will visit Chapel Hill not caring about what the Tar Heels, and their head coach in particular, think about opening the season against an ACC opponent. They’ll be looking to start the season off on the right foot, something that will undoubtedly be more challenging than it has been in the past.