UNC Football is slated to face a tough conference schedule in 2026

Earlier this week, the Atlantic Coast Conference officially released its conference opponents for the 2026 regular season, and the UNC Football program is one of just five ACC teams to have eight conference games next season.

The Tar Heels have a loaded conference schedule, with some intriguing matchups next fall, including several in Kenan Stadium.

If you thought the 2025 schedule was set up nicely for the UNC Football program to have a chance at success, you were correct. The Tar Heels only faced two of the top six teams in the final standings, and had their chance of completely changing the trajectory of their 2025 season with losses to California and Virginia by near inches.

It's naturally easier to view the strength of the schedule after the season than before it, but the 2026 schedule appears, on the surface, to be shaping up as a much stronger test for Bill Belichick and Co. in year number two.

North Carolina will host four conference opponents in Chapel Hill, with Louisville, Miami, Syracuse, and NC State coming to Kenan Stadium. Louisville and Miami spent most of the 2025 season in the top 25, and the Hurricanes are the No. 10 seed in the College Football Playoff.

Both the Cardinals and Hurricanes have been programs on the rise the last few years, and while we don't know what will happen in the transfer portal, it'll be expected that both programs will be competitive once again in 2026.

For the games away from Kenan Stadium, the Tar Heels will travel to Clemson, Duke, Pittsburgh, and Virginia. The Blue Devils and Cavaliers played in the 2025 ACC Championship game, and both programs showed this season that they are on the rise and hoping to make even bigger strides in 2026.

And of course, traveling to Death Valley to face Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers is never an easy task. The Tigers had a down year in 2025, but Dabo has built something special in Clemson, and one can expect them to have a bounce-back season in 2026.

It is important to note that the ACC is in a transition "hybrid" year with the conference schedule as the conference transitions to a nine-game conference schedule. However, due to some contractual non-conference games, not every ACC team will play nine conference games in 2026.

The Tar Heels are one of those teams, and as part of the new ACC scheduling format, each team is required to play at least ten "power four" opponents each season. If an ACC member has a nine game schedule, this means at least one non-conference game versus a power four opponent from the Big Ten, Big 12, or SEC.

In North Carolina's case, due to having only eight conference games, this means two non-conference games against power four teams. The two non-conference games will be against TCU, when both teams will travel to Ireland to kick off the season in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic, and against Notre Dame in Chapel Hill.

So to add to an already challenging conference slate, the UNC Football program and Bill Belichick will have their hands full for the 2026 schedule in an attempt to continue the rebuild in Chapel Hill.

We will receive the dates for the conference slate sometime early in 2026, but here's what we know so far.

2026 UNC Football Dates

August 29th: vs TCU (Ireland)
September 12th: vs East Tennessee State
October 3rd: vs Notre Dame
November 17th: at Connecticut

ACC Home

Louisville
Miami
NC State
Syracuse

ACC Away

Clemson
Duke
Pittsburgh
Virginia