North Carolina won’t release its 2020-21 basketball schedule for another five months, but some of it has already become public knowledge.

A few of the games are part of series that started this past season or before and some have been announced by the other schools. As for the Tar Heels’ trip to the Maui Invitational in November, that was released by the event several months ago.

Generally, teams can play no more than 31 games before entering their postseason conference tournaments, but UNC will play 32. Twenty ACC and eight scheduled nonconference games in addition to three contests in the Maui Invitational and a true road game at Hawaii make up the 32 affairs.

The NCAA grants an exemption for numerous early season tournaments and all games played outside the Continental 48 states, and teams that schedule Hawaii on the road get a "free" game because of the difficulty the Warriors have getting home games.

So, 30 of the 32 contests are essentially spoken for.

Four nonconference games have not yet been announced, one of which will be part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. It’s probable the Tar Heels will play on the road since they hosted Ohio State last December. The leagues try to rotate teams home-and-away every two years, though it’s not always absolute.

In 21 years in the event, UNC has played 10 home games, nine on the road and two at neutral sites. The Tar Heels visited Michigan in November of 2018 in their last away game in the series.

That leaves three contests, though while it has not been announced, it was reported on Ohio State Coach Chris Holtmann's radio show on March 17 that the Buckeyes and Tar Heels will meet in the CBS Sports Classic just before Christmas. The second three-year contract expired last December and a new agreement hasn't been announced, though a UNC spokesman told THI the Tar Heels are "committed" to the event. The location of the game has not been disclosed, however, with UNC playing at Monmouth on Dec. 17, it's possible the Dec. 19 game will be in Brooklyn.

The non-ACC games that have been announced are home dates with Elon, UNC Wilmington and Charleston as well as true road games at Hawaii (Nov. 20) and Monmouth.

Carolina will play in the Maui Invitational Nov. 23-25, which is one of the premier in-season events of the college basketball season. The bracket has not yet been released, but the field includes Indiana, Texas, Stanford, Alabama, Providence, Davidson and UNLV.

In its ACC slate, UNC will pay home-and-home games against Clemson, Florida State, Duke, N.C. State, Syracuse and Miami. The Tar Heels will play eight teams once, including at home versus Louisville, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, and on the road at Boston College, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Virginia.

The ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchups are usually released in early May, but it could be until sometime in late August when UNC fans learn what the rest of the Tar Heels’ schedule will look like.