North Carolina’s 2026 schedule already looks a lot meaner than the one that helped bury the Tar Heels in a 4-8 season a year ago, and the preseason AP Top 25 only drives that home.
UNC went through last season with just one ranked opponent, Virginia, which was No. 16 when the Cavaliers edged the Tar Heels 17-16 in overtime at Kenan Stadium on Oct. 25. This fall, Bill Belichick’s second Carolina team is staring at three ranked foes, two of them in the top 10, plus four more opponents that picked up votes.
The headline names are hard to miss. Ohio State opened at No. 1 in the poll released Monday, with Oregon at No.
2, Georgia at No. 3 and Notre Dame at No. 4.
Carolina will get the Irish first, hosting them at Kenan Stadium on Oct. 3.
That game will be the first time a top-10 team has played in Chapel Hill since No. 5 Notre Dame beat UNC 45-32 on Sept.
24, 2022.
Two more ranked teams come later in the stretch run. No.
7 Miami visits Chapel Hill on Oct. 31, and Louisville checks in at No. 24 on Nov. 14.
UNC hasn’t appeared in the preseason AP poll since it was No. 21 in 2023.
The early road to the ACC schedule is no easier. Carolina opens league play at Clemson on Sept. 19, and the Tigers just missed the rankings, landing five poll points shy of the top 25. Clemson’s absence is notable on its own: it’s the first time the Tigers have missed the preseason poll since 2011.
Before conference play begins, the Tar Heels start the season at noon ET on Aug. 29 in Dublin, Ireland, against TCU in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. The Horned Frogs received 11 poll points, good for the 30th-most.
There are a couple more teams on the schedule that also showed up in the voting. Pittsburgh, which UNC visits on Oct. 10, got seven poll points. Virginia, which the Tar Heels play on the road Oct. 21, received one.
The rest of Carolina’s schedule includes ETSU on Sept. 12, Duke on Oct.
17, Syracuse on Oct. 24, UConn on Nov. 7 and N.C.
State on Nov. 28.
In Other News...
UNC Quarterback Decision Just Changed The Tar Heels' Week 1 Outlook
North Carolina has settled its quarterback situation for Week 1, and it comes with a little more certainty than the early buzz suggested. The Tar Heels announced that a sixth-year transfer will start against TCU, ending a competition that had appeared to tilt toward Miles O'Neill during the opening stretch of camp. Instead, the Wisconsin transfer won the job and now gets the first crack at leading the offense when the season opens.
O'Neill is still very much part of the conversation, though, and that matters for a team trying to smooth out the transition at the game's most important position. He is expected to be the backup and remains in the mix for playing time if the starter gets benched, so this is not necessarily a closed file so much as a first answer. For North Carolina, the bigger takeaway is that the Tar Heels can now start shaping Week 1 around a defined quarterback plan instead of a battle that had lingered into the final stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Michael Malone Is Sending UNC Fans A Tough Early Message
Michael Malone is stepping into Chapel Hill with the kind of message fans often hear when a new era begins, but do not always want to absorb: the work comes first, and the results have to grow from it. As he gets ready for his debut season at North Carolina, Malone is pushing a long-term approach built around daily improvement rather than treating a championship as something that should arrive on schedule. That matters at a program that has already lived through a rough stretch, including a first-round tournament exit that helped bring about the coaching change.
There is reason for optimism, though, because Malone also brings a track record of recruiting success and is expected to help UNC stack talent in the 2027 class. The bigger question is how quickly all of that can be turned into a team that looks like a title contender again. For Tar Heels fans, the early message is less about instant gratification and more about patience, even as the pieces for a stronger future begin to come together. [Read more 🡒]
UNCs Offseason Additions Still Havent Silenced This Doubt
ESPNs latest Bracketology update gave North Carolina a little less room to breathe, slotting the Tar Heels as an 8-seed after they had been projected as a 7-seed two months ago. It is a small drop on paper, but it fits the uneasy tone around a team that has tried to bolster its roster in the offseason while still searching for the kind of confidence that comes with being viewed as a more secure tournament bet.
UNC did add Angelo Brizzi, Cameron Fens and Sayon Keita, giving the roster a different look heading into the season and some reason for optimism. Even so, the broader conversation has not fully moved off the same question: whether those additions are enough to quiet doubts about where the Tar Heels sit in the bracket and how tough their path could be if they wind up in a loaded region. [Read more 🡒]