The 2019 North Carolina football season is an anomaly for several reasons:
The Tar Heels earlier set an NCAA record for most games decided by a touchdown or less through 10 games, true freshman quarterback Sam Howell is breaking records, and because the Tar Heels will not play a game at noon all season for the first time this century.
UNC played 224 regular season games over a 19-season stretch from 2000-2018 with 50 of them kicking off at night and 94 starting in the noon block. This fall: Five night games and zero noon starts.
So, the average for the first 19 seasons of this century was 2.6 night games per season and 4.9 noon starts. But, if you consider that 15 of the night games were Thursday nights, that’s 1.8 night kicks a campaign.
Here is a list of UNC’s night/noon regular season games per season this century:
Note: Postseason games not included
2019 – 5 night, 0 noon
2018 – 2 night, 6 noon
2017 – 1 night, 4 noon
2016 – 3 night, 2 noon
2015 – 4 night, 4 noon
2014 – 5 night, 5 noon
2013 – 2 night, 8 noon
2012 – 2 night, 4 noon
2011 – 2 night, 6 noon
2010 – 3 night, 2 noon
2009 – 3 night, 4 noon
2008 – 3 night, 4 noon
2007 – 2 night, 7 noon
2006 –1 night, 7 noon
2005 – 2 night, 5 noon
2004 – 4 night, 5 noon
2003 – 1 night, 3 noon
2002 – 3 night, 5 noon
2001 – 2 night, 6 noon
2000 – 5 night, 3 noon