UNC, NC State to meet in first regular-season Greensboro game since 1979
By Brian Murphy
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GREENSBORO, North Carolina (WRAL) — NC State and North Carolina will play two nonconference men’s basketball games in Greensboro over the next two seasons, ensuring that the longtime rivals will have multiple regular-season meetings after the ACC ended their annual home-and-home meetings.
The inaugural Tobacco Road Classic presented by Old Dominion Freight Line will be played Dec. 15 at First Horizon Coliseum (formerly Greensboro Coliseum). WRAL reported in June that the teams were working on the game. Tickets go on sale Sept. 10.
It will be the first regular-season meeting between the rivals in Greensboro since Nov. 30, 1979 when the teams met in the Big Four tournament. Greensboro, the former longtime home of the ACC’s conference offices and men’s basketball tournament, will host the 2027 ACC Tournament.
“If you’re a traditionalist, Greensboro is the heart of the ACC basketball world,” said Chip Overbey, a senior vice president at Old Dominion.
State lawmakers approved $30 million for capital improvements for the Coliseum in its recently passed and enacted budget. The game could also qualify for money from the state’s Major Events, Games, and Attractions Fund, funded by tax revenues from legal online sports betting in the state.
“The fans have spoken, the administrators have spoken, the legislators have spoken that this game matters,” first-year UNC coach Michael Malone said Wednesday in Greensboro. “This game means something to everybody in this room, and I’m really just excited to be a part of that.”
The rivals met just once during the 2025-26 season, the first time since 1919 that they played just one time. The teams were scheduled to play just once — in Chapel Hill – during the 2026-27 ACC regular season.
The ACC, which expanded to 18 men’s basketball teams for the 2024-25 season, moved from 20 conference games to 18 league games last season. As a result, the team’s played just once. North Carolina’s annual rival is Duke, while NC State’s is Wake Forest. Each team plays another ACC foe two times, but that opponent changes year to year. ACC teams also miss one conference team altogether.
“It’s really important because the landscape is changing,” said Malone, a former NBA championship coach who is set to begin his first season at UNC. “We have to make sure, as caretakers of this game, that we’re finding ways to give back to the fans and give them what they want.”
NC State first-year coach Justin Gainey, who grew up in High Point and played high school basketball in Greensboro, said he jumped at the chance to play the game.
“It’s great,” said Gainey, who played for the Wolfpack. “I grew up watching when NC State played ‘em twice, when I was a player we played them twice. When I was away and I looked back and I saw what happened with the expansion of the league, it didn’t make sense. I see why you can’t play everybody twice. The ACC did what they had to do.
He continued: “I’m glad that Coach [Malone], although he’s never been a part of it, that he saw the value in it and he saw how much it meant to a lot of people. For me, it was a no-brainer. As soon as I got the call, I said, ‘Absolutely, I want to do it.’ And then they said it’d be in Greensboro, I was even more excited.”
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