The North Carolina Tar Heels and South Carolina Gamecocks have canceled their future home-and-home football series, both schools announced Friday.
North Carolina and South Carolina were previously scheduled to begin a home-and-home series at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C., on September 2, 2028. The series was set to conclude at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C., on September 1, 2029.
The series has been canceled following the SEC’s announcement last year that it will begin playing a nine-game conference schedule in 2026. The ACC is also moving to a nine-game league slate this fall, although five teams will continue to play only eight conference foes.
News of the North Carolina-South Carolina cancellation comes on the heels of several other high profile series being eliminated. Those include Alabama-Oklahoma State, Florida State-Georgia, North Carolina-West Virginia, Nebraska-Tennessee, NC State-Florida, Ole Miss-BYU, Ole Miss-USC, Cal-Florida, Texas Tech-Colorado, and many others.
With the cancellation, North Carolina now has two scheduled non-conference opponents in 2028 — Kennesaw State on Sept. 9 and North Carolina A&T on Sept. 16 — and none in 2029.
The Gamecocks are now down to three non-conference games in 2028 and two in 2029. In 2028, South Carolina is scheduled to host Wofford on Sept. 9, Bowling Green on a date to be announced, and will close the regular-season at in-state rival Clemson on November 25.
South Carolina’s non-league schedule in 2029 includes home tilts against Appalachian State on Sept. 8 and Clemson on Nov. 24.
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No ACC-SEC matchup that isn't played during the final week is safe anymore.
I know that the Tar Heel and Gamecock fans were probably clamoring for their respective schools to schedule more games against Kennesaw State and Bowling Green, so I'm sure they're all thrilled to lose out on this inter-conference, border state showdown. Another scheduling victory for the fans.
A real shame. These two schools should be playing each other. This is the real result of conferences getting so big.
Relying on your conference schedule to gain access to the CFP is ruining college football. The goal is to have 4 loss teams get into the CFP dependent on media hype. Fans / players will never experience other "BRAND" teams to see their venue and them coming to your home field. SAD.
Depends on who you are talking about. The only way Northwestern was ever going to get USC or Oregon (or Nebraska or PSU) to visit Evanston was if those powerhouse programs joined the B10. They sure as heck weren't going to schedule Northwestern HaH OOC. Same goes for Vandy. There's no way in a 100 years Texas, OU, and A&M would have agreed to play @Vanderbilt OOC before joining the SEC.
Typical SEC. Scared to compete.
Yeah the Gamecocks (ISC) should not only play in-state ACC powerhouse Clemson but also their West Coast namesake Trojans (USC) to really quell anyone claiming their cowards
wait i thought the expanded playoff would allow for more big OOC games these people are a disgrace. we didnt know how good we had it with the BCS
Why do you keep listing Colorado v Texas Tech as a cancelled non conference series. It was cancelled because CU joined the Big 12, and these two teams now play every few years as part of their conference schedules.
God bless that Z-Man is no longer with us & if kept having proposals for Increase P4 vs P4 OOC rivalry games he would already be in really deep trouble & very likely quit being a CFB fan.
Many of Z-Man's Ohio State Buckeyes & Notre Dame Fighting Irish souvenirs are up for sale if you want them.