UNC will play a home-and-home football series with the University of California in 2017 and 2018, UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham announced Wednesday. The Tar Heels will play host to the Bears on Sept. 2, 2017, and then play on the road in Berkeley on Sept. 1, 2018.

The Cal series replaces the Ohio State home-and-home series, which was cancelled after the Big Ten expanded its league schedule from eight to nine games.

“Our non-conference football schedule over the next several years includes matchups against opponents from the SEC (South Carolina), Big Ten (Illinois), Pac-12 (California) and Notre Dame,” says Cunningham. “The Big Ten’s move to nine conference games each year beginning in 2016 resulted in the cancellation of our series with Ohio State, which was scheduled for 2017 and 2018. Coach (Larry) Fedora and I will continue to look to add exciting matchups both in Kenan Stadium and on the road as we complete our future schedules.”

Carolina and Cal have never met on the gridiron. The Tar Heels’ most recent game against a current member of the Pac-12 was a home win over Utah in 2005. Carolina’s last games against a team from the state of California came in a home-and-home series vs. Stanford in 1997 (Chapel Hill) and 1998 (Palo Alto).

Carolina plays at Notre Dame this year on Oct. 11 in South Bend, Indiana. A future home game vs. Notre Dame will be played in either the 2017, 2018 or 2019 season. The ACC will announce future matchups with Notre Dame and all ACC teams at a later date.

North Carolina also has agreed to future games in 2015 against South Carolina (previously announced, Sept. 5, 2015, in Charlotte), North Carolina A&T (Sept. 12, 2015), Delaware (Sept. 26, 2015) and Eastern Michigan (Sept. 9, 2017).

NORTH CAROLINA FUTURE SCHEDULES
2015
9/5/15: vs. South Carolina (Charlotte)
9/12/15: vs. North Carolina A&T (Chapel Hill)
9/19/15: vs. Illinois (Chapel Hill)
9/26/15: vs. Delaware (Chapel Hill)

2016
9/10/16: at Illinois

2017
9/2/17: vs. California (Chapel Hill)
9/9/17: vs. Eastern Michigan (Chapel Hill)

2018
9/1/18: at California (Berkeley)
9/8/18: at East Carolina

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