With the ACC's release of the 2019-20 men's basketball schedule on Thursday, the Tar Heels now have a complete picture of their slate for the coming season.
Following an exhibition against Winson-Salem State, North Carolina will begin the campaign, oddly enough, on Nov. 6 at home against Notre Dame. It will be the first time UNC opens the season with a conference game since a 1966 win against Clemson.
After a road matchup with Virginia on either Friday, Dec. 6 or Saturday, Dec. 7, the Tar Heels will begin conference play in earnest with a Jan. 4 game against Georgia Tech. In fact, 2019-20 is the first season in which ACC teams will play 20 conference games, an increase that comes after seven seasons of an 18-game league schedule.
UNC will play six different ACC teams twice: Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Virginia, N.C. State and Duke.
The Tar Heels will host four additional conferences foes – Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Miami – and visit four additional teams on the road – Florida State, Louisville, Syracuse and Virginia Tech.
North Carolina will face the Blue Devils on Saturday, Feb. 8, a notable change from the usual weekday game for the teams' first matchup of the new year.
UNC's last game of the regular season will be at Duke on March 7.
Upon the schedule's release Thursday night, it seemed the ACC had left the door open for a little chicanery, as both UNC-Duke matchups were initially listed as being broadcasted on "ESPN/2/U/ACCN." A most devious scenario would have seen the ACC broadcasting both games on the ACC Network (ACCN), forcing millions of college basketball fans to pony up for the newly-launched channel to see what are regularly the most-watched college basketball games of the regular season.
