UNC basketball’s new basketball strategy causes them to lose against NC State.

Another ACC Tradition Bites the Dust with 18-Game Schedule Shift

With the ACC officially approving its move to an 18-game conference basketball schedule, yet another long-standing tradition fades into history.

Announced Wednesday, the change—first leaked last week—reduces conference play from 20 to 18 games, allowing schools to schedule two more non-conference matchups. The aim? Give top-tier programs more opportunities to add resume-boosting games ahead of March Madness.

But the final format wasn’t quite what many expected. Rather than adopt the model used by the ACC women’s side, the new plan includes one permanent home-and-home rival, a second rotating home-and-home opponent, and one team each school won’t face at all in a given season.

No surprise: UNC’s guaranteed annual home-and-home remains with Duke. That game remains the ACC’s crown jewel, a ratings monster that ESPN and other media partners have no interest in losing—especially when you consider that UNC-Duke helped launch ESPN2 back in the day.

Still, one casualty stands out: the annual two-game rivalry with NC State.

For decades, Tar Heels and Wolfpack fans could count on two heated matchups per season—no matter how the teams were performing. It was a tradition that brought consistency, energy, and a touch of old-school ACC grit. Now, it’s on life support.

Ironically, NC State itself played a major role in this development. In 2023, when the ACC was teetering on the edge of instability, it was NC State’s vote that helped push through the league’s expansion. That vote was essentially a survival tactic, meant to ensure the conference’s viability if schools jumped ship through litigation. But that very move also created an 18-team behemoth—too large to accommodate many of the conference’s cherished rivalries on an annual basis.

The result? NC State could now go entire seasons without facing UNC. And it’s not clear yet whether the two schools will even meet once this upcoming season, let alone twice.

In the coming weeks, the ACC will finalize the schedule. The big question remains: Will the conference soften the blow by giving UNC and NC State at least one more season of the full rivalry treatment? Or are we headed toward a future where this historic matchup is reduced to a once-a-year affair—or disappears entirely some seasons?

Meanwhile, UNC has two additional non-conference slots to fill. Whether those games become marquee matchups or tune-ups remains to be seen. But one thing’s certain: the ACC we grew up with continues to slip further into the past.