North Carolina lawmakers want to require the state’s two biggest and richest athletic programs – UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State – to regularly play football and basketball games against other in-state public schools.

Under a bill filed by prominent Republican House members, UNC and NC State would be required to play at least one of East Carolina, Appalachian State and Charlotte every year and would have to play each school home and away every six years.

UNC and NC State would also be required to play each other home or away every year, a nod to looming realignment that could move the longtime rivals into separate conferences.

“Sports tourism is vital to the economy of North Carolina, and intrastate collegiate athletics generates millions of dollars in economic impact to the State,” the bill states. “It is the priority of the General Assembly to encourage intrastate collegiate athletic rivalries in order to promote economic development.”

House Bill 965, titled UNC Intrastate Athletic Competition, is sponsored by Reps. Jason Saine, Jake Johnson, Ray Pickett and David Willis. Saine, R-Lincoln, is a Charlotte supporter and senior chairman of the appropriations committee.

“We’re just making sure we get those games,” Saine said. “They can’t not play. There’s enough wiggle room in there as far as space and calendaring that we’ll get the maximum benefit without real injury to them. It’s what fans want to see and it’s a good way to do it.”

The bill identifies “high-enrollment institutions” as those with more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students. UNC, NC State and Charlotte are the only in-state schools that meet that threshold, according to UNC Board of Governors data for the fall of 2023.

But Saine said the bill is not meant to include Charlotte among those.

It defines other “eligible constituent institutions” as those that play at the highest-level of college football, which means Appalachian State, East Carolina and Charlotte.

It says that every year UNC and NC State – identified in the bill as “high-enrollment institutions” – must play at least one home or away football and men’s and women’s basketball game against each other and East Carolina and Appalachian State.

Further, it says that every six years, UNC and NC State must play at least one home and away game against each of other three schools. And it would require those games to be alternated between home and away, meaning UNC and NC State would have to play on the road.

“It’s more messaging,” Saine said when asked about its chances of passage. “The chance of passage may be based on the reactions from the schools. If they kind of overreact, it may force the issue. As much as anything, it’s to kind of put a marker out there that fans want to see this. We hear it a lot.”

The bill sets aside $1 million to the Board of Governors to “inform eligible constituent institutions and members of the public about the intrastate athletic competition required” by the act. It would become effective on July 1 if passed.

In football, the teams do play. UNC, which just completed a home-and-home series with Appalachian State over the last two years, hosts Charlotte in 2024 and visits Charlotte in 2025. NC State has home-and-home series scheduled with all three in-state FBS programs between 2025 and 2031.

Source: wral.com