Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels 2025 Season Opener Set for Primetime

Tar Heel Athletics

The Tar Heels’ 2025 season opener is officially set as of Tuesday evening.

Per a release from ESPN earlier this evening, the Tar Heels will be having their season opener pushed back to 8:00 PM on Monday, September 1st after it was originally slated to kick off at 7:30 PM. The game will take place on ESPN.

This will be the first time that the Tar Heels will ever begin a season on a Monday night, but the second straight season that they will do so on a weeknight.

This season’s meeting will be the fourth ever matchup between the Tar Heels and the Horned Frogs. The previous three all went in favor of Carolina, including the most recent matchup between the two sides back in 1997, a season that many refer to as the most successful in program history. This is the first of consecutive games that the Tar Heels will play against TCU in the season opener with the team traveling to Ireland next year for the Aer Lingus Classic to open the 2026 college football season.

This is the ideal scenario for the Tar Heels despite the negative storylines that have been around the team. It will give the program the type of national attention that it hasn't had since the 90s with some form of College Gameday and the top broadcast crew likely being on campus. The question now is will the program be able to capitalize on this type of attention, something it has failed to do with the attention they have received since Mack Brown's first stint on the Kenan Stadium sidelines.