ACC officially announces UNC's football schedule for 2020 season

The ACC announced North Carolina's football schedule for the 2020 season on Wednesday morning, featuring six home games, five road games and one neutral-site game for the Tar Heels.

UNC will open the season by traveling to Orlando for a matchup with UCF on Friday, Sept. 4, a game that will be broadcasted on ESPN.

North Carolina will then head to Atlanta to face off against Auburn in the lone neutral-site game of the season on Saturday, Sept. 12. That contest will be a part of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game series in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Tar Heels will make their home debut in Kenan Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 19, against James Madison, the runner-up of the 2019 FCS national championship.

Following its game against the Dukes, eight of UNC's nine remaining games will be against ACC opponents, with the first being a home matchup with Georgia Tech on Saturday, Sept. 26. North Carolina will travel to Charlottesville, Virginia, to face Virginia on Saturday, Oct. 3, before returning to Chapel Hill to host Virginia Tech on Saturday, Oct. 10.

The Tar Heels will travel to Durham and attempt to retain the Victory Bell as they take on Duke on Saturday, Oct. 17. The road trip will continue with UNC heading to Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday, Oct. 24, for a game against the Hurricanes.

North Carolina will get the Halloween weekend off before returning to action on Saturday, Nov. 7, with a nonconference contest against UConn in Kenan Stadium. The Tar Heels will also play host to Pittsburgh on Saturday, Nov. 14, before heading north to face Boston College in the final road game of the season on Saturday, Nov. 21.

With a short week to prepare, North Carolina will return to action on Friday, Nov. 27 to play N.C. State in Chapel Hill in its final game of the regular season.

As part of UNC's press release announcing the 2020 schedule, head coach Mack Brown included a statement expressing his distaste for a pair of Friday games to open and close the regular season.

"We do not like playing on Friday nights because Friday night is for high school football, and we’ve always believed that," Brown said. "North Carolina high school football is at the top of our list when it comes to things that are important to us. We really don’t like being in a position where we could take away from the great coaches and players in our state because they’re our lifeblood and deserve to have the spotlight on Friday nights."

North Carolina's five-game run of ACC Coastal Division foes from Sept. 26 through Oct. 24 will likely be a defining time for the Tar Heels. An undefeated stretch for UNC during that span would secure North Carolina's first winning record in the ACC since the 2016 season.

@McMastersJ

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