NC State finalizing deal to open 2024 football season in Charlotte against Tennessee
N.C. State is close to an agreement to open the 2024 football season against Tennessee at Charlotte’s Bank of America stadium, multiple sources close to the negotiations told The News & Observer.
N.C. State is scheduled to host Western Carolina on August 31, 2024. The Wolfpack’s other nonconference games are against Louisiana Tech and at South Florida. Tennessee currently has that date open in 2024.
The game would replace Brigham Young on the Wolfpack’s nonconference schedule. N.C. State was scheduled to host BYU in 2024 and travel there in 2030, but that series was canceled over the summer with BYU joining the Big 12 next fall.
“We have some exciting possibilities for 2024,” Charlotte Sports Foundation executive director Danny Morrison told the News & Observer, “but everything is not finalized at this point.”
In September, Big 12-bound Cincinnati pulled out of a home-and-home with N.C. State — at Cincinnati in 2023 and in Raleigh in 2029 — for the same reason. N.C. State replaced that trip with a home game against Marshall.
The game against Tennessee would be the Wolfpack’s first neutral-site opener since a 2017 loss to South Carolina in Charlotte. N.C. State also played Tennessee in Atlanta to open the 2012 season.
“We are continuing to work on future football schedules and will release them when contracts are signed,” an N.C. State spokesperson wrote in a text message to the N&O.
North Carolina will play South Carolina in Charlotte next fall.
The Triangle doesn’t have a great record in openers against SEC opponents. Since 2010, N.C. State, Duke and North Carolina are a combined 1-6 against Alabama, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina and Tennessee in Atlanta and Charlotte. The only win was the most recent, North Carolina over South Carolina in Charlotte in Mack Brown’s re-debut for the Tar Heels.
Triangle SEC openers
The Triangle is 1-6 against SEC teams in neutral-site openers since 2010.
2010 LSU def. UNC, Atlanta
2012 Tennessee def. NC State, Atlanta
2015 South Carolina def. UNC, Charlotte
2016 Georgia def. UNC, Atlanta
2017 South Carolina def. NC State, Charlotte
2019 Alabama def. Duke, Atlanta
2019 UNC def. South Carolina, Charlotte
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 10:22 AM with the headline "NC State finalizing deal to open 2024 football season in Charlotte against Tennessee."
