North Carolina–NC State football rivalry

The North Carolina–NC State football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the North Carolina Tar Heels football team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the NC State Wolfpack football team of North Carolina State University.

Both universities are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the yearly matchup is a protected rivalry in the expanded ACC. The rivalry game is played at the end of each season during Thanksgiving week. North Carolina leads the all-time series 68–41–6. Through 1955 North Carolina had built a commanding 34–5–6 series lead; since 1956 NC State leads 36–34. The Wolfpack have currently won five matchups in a row, in addition to 8 of the last 10 and 14 of the last 19 in the series. NC State won the most recent contest 42–19 on November 29, 2025. It is annually anticipated as the fiercest college football rivalry in the state of North Carolina.

Only twice in the history of the rivalry has the game been contested anywhere beside Chapel Hill or Raleigh. The game has been played 61 times in Chapel Hill, 52 times in Raleigh, and twice in Charlotte, North Carolina (1998 and 1999). Played uninterrupted since 1953, the game since 1965 has alternated annually between the two respective campuses (save for the aforementioned 1998 & 1999 games). Games in odd-numbered years are played in Raleigh at NC State, and even-numbered years in Chapel Hill at UNC.