By R.L. Bynum
North Carolina will travel the fifth-fewest miles of the teams in the expanded 17-team ACC during football season, only leaving the state four times and the Eastern time zone once.
According to Bookies.com, UNC — which won’t visit new ACC members Cal, Stanford or SMU next season — will travel 5,423.1 miles. Only Pittsburgh (4,920.62), Duke (4,358.32), Virginia (3,151.4) and Clemson (2,471.78) will travel fewer miles, with the latter two never leaving the Eastern time zone.
You’d be wrong if you guessed that the league teams that would travel the most would be Georgia Tech and Florida State since they open the season on Aug. 24 in Dublin, Ireland, even though that’s an 8,174-mile roundtrip.
That shows the craziness of the travel for the ACC’s new California members.
The total miles of travel for the Seminoles (13,028.14) and Yellow Jackets (12,962.14) are still fewer than Cal (20,660.7) and Stanford (14,028.14). The Bears will play outside their Pacific time zone 13 times, and the Cardinal will do it eight times.
Cal’s average road trip of 4,132.14 miles is more than the total miles that Virginia and Clemson will travel all season.
Stanford and Cal will play each other every season, but that 94.8-mile roundtrip is longer than the combined trips for the UNC-Duke (25 miles) and UNC-N.C. State (44.4) rivalries.
Thanks to playing at Cal on Oct. 5, Miami will travel more miles (11,516.52) than new league member SMU (11,303.66).
UNC’s longest roundtrip will be the 2,386 miles to Minneapolis, Minn., for the Tar Heels’ opener at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, Aug. 29 (Fox) against Minnesota.
The Tar Heels’ longest trips after that are to Charlottesville, Va., on Oct. 26 to face Virginia, Tallahassee, Fla., on Nov. 2 to meet Florida State and Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Nov. 23 to take on Boston College.
| Month/ date | Score/ time | Opponent | Record/ TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| September | |||
| 1 | L, 48–14 | vs. TCU | 0–1 |
| 6 | W, 20–3 | at Charlotte | 1–1 |
| 13 | W, 41–6 | vs. Richmond | 2–1 |
| 20 | L, 34–9 | at UCF | 2–2 |
| October | |||
| 4 | L, 38–10 | vs. Clemson | 2–3, 0–1 ACC |
| 17 (Fri.) | L, 21–18 | at California | 2–4, 0–2 |
| 25 | L, 17–16, OT | vs. No. 16 Virginia | 2–5, 0–3 |
| 31 (Fri.) | W, 27–10 | at Syracuse | 3–5, 1–3 |
| November | |||
| 8 | W, 20–15 | vs. Stanford | 4–5, 2–3 |
| 15 | L, 28–12 | at Wake Forest | 4–6, 2–4 |
| 22 | L, 32–25 | vs. Duke | 4–7, 2–5 |
| 29 | L, 42–19 | at N.C. State | 4–8, 2–6 |
Photo by Zetong Li
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