North Carolina’s potential basketball schedule for this season is starting to take shape, sort of.
With a clear understanding of the new scheduling guidelines for a season that was supposed to tip off in seven weeks, it appears the Tar Heels could play 27 games, including 20 ACC contests.
UNC had not yet released its schedule before Wednesday's announcement by the NCAA, which typically comes out in August, but THI previous reported 30 of the 32 opponents originally marked for this season's slate. That now won’t happen, as several games are scheduled before the new NCAA-mandated Nov. 25 tipoff date.
Teams are now allowed to play only 24 regular season games if they're also in an MTE (multi-team event), or 25 games if they aren't. The Maui Invitational qualifies as an MTE, so if the tournament is played, and the Tar Heels take part, they can play 24 scheduled games plus three in that event for a total of 27.
UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham was on the University’s Carolina Insider Podcast on Thursday morning and said a couple of nonconference games already on the schedule are likely to remain. He also indicated the ACC slate likely won't change, at least with respect to the number of games league teams will play.
“It does appear that we're going to play 20 games as an ACC conference schedule,” Cunningham said. “We also have the Big 10-ACC challenge. And we also have the CBS Classic where we’re playing (Ohio State). So those are games that are on the docket.
“Now we have to try to manage the other games and see what happens with the Maui Invitational. Hopefully, all of those will work out and we'll get to 27 games.”
Held in Lahaina, HI, the Maui Invitational is scheduled for Nov. 23-25. But multiple reports suggest the tournament will be pushed back to a later date and moved to the U.S. Mainland, perhaps to Indianapolis or Asheville, NC, according to CBS Sports.
Cunningham doubts the event will take place in Hawaii.
“We are scheduled to play in the Maui Invitational, which I don’t think will be in Maui,” he said. “They’re going to announce here shortly, so we could potentially play 24 games scheduled, plus the MTE, which would be three. So, we could get to 27.”
In addition to that tournament and the Ohio State and Big Ten/ACC Challenge games, the Tar Heels were also slated to face Hawaii and Monmouth in true road games while hosting Elon, Charleston and UNC Wilmington. THI has not learned which other two teams would have filled the slate.
Cunningham also said that Roy Williams and Clint Gwaltney, the Senior Associate A.D. for Smith Center Operations/Event Management, were working Thursday morning to iron out the non-ACC part of the schedule.
If the in-place 20-game ACC schedule holds, the Tar Heels will play home-and-home games versus Clemson, Florida State, Duke, NC State, Syracuse and Miami. They will play single games versus Louisville, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest at home and single games versus Boston College, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Virginia on the road.
Teams are not allowed to play exhibition games or secret scrimmages.
