North Carolina and NC State are bringing the rivalry back to Greensboro, and they’re doing it outside the league schedule.
The schools announced Wednesday that the Tar Heels and Wolfpack will play a non-conference game on Dec. 15, 2026 at First Horizon Coliseum, with the venue formerly known as the Greensboro Coliseum serving as the site for the inaugural Tobacco Road Classic. It’s the first game in a two-part series, and the return meeting is set for Greensboro again in the 2027-28 season.
Tickets are scheduled to go on sale Sept. 10 at the coliseum box office and Ticketmaster.
The move comes after the ACC trimmed its men’s basketball conference schedule from 20 games to 18 beginning in the 2025-26 season. That change, paired with league expansion and the push to leave more room for quality non-conference games, wiped out the old automatic home-and-home setup for most league matchups.
Now each team has one permanent “primary partner” for annual home-and-home games, plus one rotating variable partner. Everyone else gets a single meeting, and one opponent is left off the schedule entirely.
That’s why State-Carolina is no longer guaranteed twice every season.
Last year marked the first time since 1919 that the Tar Heels and Wolfpack met only once in the regular season, and NC State made that lone meeting count with an 82-58 win in Raleigh. This season, the teams were slated for just one ACC game, in Chapel Hill. The Greensboro matchup changes that, giving the rivalry two regular-season dates in 2026-27 and again the following year.
Both new head coaches pointed to the game’s significance.
Malone said “the fans have spoken, the administrators have spoken, the legislators have spoken that this game matters.”
Gainey said “what an opportunity to come back to tournament town.”
State lawmakers had pushed to keep in-state rivalries intact, and Greensboro has been framed as a fitting neutral site, especially with the city set to host the 2027 ACC Tournament.
There’s another wrinkle that makes this series stand out: both programs are entering the matchup with first-year head coaches, the first time that has happened in the rivalry since 1946-47. Malone came in after winning an NBA title with the Denver Nuggets and replacing Hubert Davis. Gainey took over after ‘The Snake’ left for LSU.
The Dec. 15 game will be a true non-conference matchup played roughly midway between Chapel Hill and Raleigh. It will also be the first regular-season meeting between the schools in Greensboro since the Big Four Tournament on Nov.
30, 1979. The last time they played there in any setting was the 1998 ACC Tournament.
Carolina owns a 10-4 edge in Greensboro.
The two schools will also meet once in ACC play at the Smith Center, with the 2027 Tobacco Road Classic again landing in Greensboro. The setup gives the rivalry two games without forcing either program to squeeze an extra home date into a tight non-conference slate under the NCAA’s 32-game regular-season cap.
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