CHAPEL HILL – The last time North Carolina took the field at Kenan Stadium versus Florida State, the Tar Heels were quarterbacked by then-junior T.J. Yates and had guys like Shaun Draughn, Bruce Carter, and Kendric Burney doing their thing for head coach Butch Davis’ team.
The Seminoles’ coach was Bobby Bowden. The legendary Hall of Famer was in his final season at FSU, and his team overcame a 24-6 third-quarter deficit to defeat UNC, 30-27, in the first Thursday night game ever at Carolina. It was also the first time the Heels wore all Navy blue uniforms.
Bowden retired a couple of months later, and the FSU-at-UNC series began an 11-year hiatus among the pines that will reconvene Saturday afternoon for a 3:30 PM kick. The drought isn’t because Bowden rode off into the sunset, but it is the product of a quirky ACC scheduling system that has kept the Seminoles from Chapel Hill for the last 12 years.
To put into perspective just how long it has been, the last time FSU visited UNC in football, which was Oct. 22, 2009, the Barack Obama presidency was just nine months old, Paranormal Activity was the top movie at the box office, the World Series between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies was about to commence, and Tyler Hansbrough and the UNC Tar Heels were six months removed from winning the NCAA basketball championship.
It isn’t just the absence of FSU at UNC that makes the ACC’s cycle of scheduling a head scratcher. But it is by far the matchup most affected.
“It’s really a dilemma in trying to figure out rivalries, for one thing,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said Monday, when asked about the infrequency of FSU’s visits, and the nature of ACC scheduling.
“How do you divide a conference the Atlantic and the Coastal, and how do you have crossover games? I think again this year we’re playing Wake Forest as an out-of-conference game.”
UNC visited Wake Forest in 2019 in a nonconference game, and on Nov. 6, the Demon Deacons will head to Kenan for a contest carrying no weight in the ACC standings. The home-and-home series was scheduled because the longtime rivals stopped playing annually with Wake in the Atlantic Division and UNC residing in the Coastal Division.
The ACC expanded from 12 to 14 teams for football starting in the 2013-14 academic year. So, in the 14-team football ACC, each division has seven teams, and with an eight-game league slate, UNC, as an example, plays the other six Coastal teams plus two clubs from the Atlantic. But each school has a crossover opponent from the other division it plays annually, leaving just one game a year from the other six schools.
In Carolina’s case, its annual crossover opponent is NC State, so the math suggests visits from the other six schools will essentially occur once every 12 years. Though it doesn’t always work out that way.
The Tar Heels and Deacons have met four times in league games since 2009, though just once in Winston-Salem, so Wake has been to Chapel Hill three times in league games since the last time FSU made the trek.
Clemson has been on Carolina’s season schedule four times since 2009, twice in Death Valley and twice in Chapel Hill. They did meet a fifth time in the 2015 ACC championship game.
Boston College joined the ACC in 2003, but the Eagles and Tar Heels have met just twice on the gridiron since 2009, each hosting the other once.
Changes, however, could be coming, Brown senses.
“It’s a little bit crazy when you look at it, but I think what we may see is if there aren’t changes in Coastal and Atlantic, you may see people start playing more conference games as crossover even though they’re out of conference games,” he said. “I think we may see that for TV purposes moving forward because the more money TV is going to put into it the more they’re going to demand better games and a tougher schedule.”
Or the ACC could simply move to a nine-game league slate and eliminate games versus FCS teams to bolster the value of its TV contract. Or, the league could get rid of the divisions altogether, give every school three annual opponents and just round-robin things so each school can visit everyone in the conference at least once every four years.
The variety in games likely would help at the gate, too. Though, most decisions these days are about TV dollars and little else.
“Coaches can’t gripe about not having enough money in their programs through the TV packages and then not play great games,” Brown said. “That’s where coaches are in a dilemma right now.”
The league is in one, too. And until a restructuring takes place, it could be another 12 years until the Seminoles venture into Kenan again. Fans can start counting the days until 2033.
UNC ACC Home Games Since 2009
NC State – 6
Virginia Tech – 6
Georgia Tech – 5
Virginia – 5
Miami – 5
Duke – 5
Pittsburgh – 3
Wake Forest – 3
Clemson – 2
Boston College – 1
Louisville – 1
Syracuse – 1
Notre Dame – 1
Maryland – 1
Florida State – 0
UNC ACC Road Games Since 2009
Virginia – 6
Miami – 6
Duke – 6
NC State – 5
Virginia Tech – 5
Georgia Tech – 5
Pittsburgh – 4
Florida State – 3
Clemson – 2
Syracuse – 1
Boston College – 1
Wake Forest – 1
