UNC Agrees to Three-Game Football Series vs. App State

Thanks to a deal made public on Monday, UNC and Appalachian State will meet on the gridiron for the first time since 1940.

As part of a three-game agreement, the Tar Heels will also make their first trip to Boone on Sept. 3, 2022 for their season opener.

The first game will take place at Kenan Stadium on Sept. 21, 2019, with the third, and final, game being played in Chapel Hill on Sept. 9, 2023.

Bret Strelow–who covers the Mountaineers for the Winston-Salem Journal–reports that the schools agreed to a traditional home-and-home series, with App State receiving payment for its second trip to UNC.

Members of the Sun Belt Conference, the Mountaineers have only been part of the Football Bowl Subdivision–which used to be known as Division I-A–since the 2014 season.

They rose to the national conscience, however, with a remarkable run of three straight national championships at the Division I-AA level from 2005-07.

After a season-opening upset in Ann Arbor over No. 5 Michigan in 2007, App State also became the first I-AA school–now known as the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)–to receive votes in the AP Top 25.

Since becoming eligible for bowl appearances in 2015, the Mountaineers have won each of their postseason games.

Now, the school once mocked by Adam Sandler in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard will officially get a chance to test their progress against the most decorated athletic program in the state.

In the first, and only, meeting between the teams in 1940, UNC came out on top 56-6 in Chapel Hill.