North Carolina–Wake Forest rivalry


The North Carolina–Wake Forest rivalry is a series of athletic contests between in-state rivals, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons. The first game was played in 1888 between the two institutions. Wake Forest was originally located in Wake Forest, North Carolina until it moved its campus across the state of North Carolina to Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1956. Since the ACC expanded in the 21st century, first to 12 members in 2005 and most recently in 2013 to 14 football members, the two schools cannot play annually in football because the two schools were placed in separate divisions, and were assigned different opponents for their "protected" cross-division games. UNC and Wake Forest are respectively in the Coastal and Atlantic Divisions, with NC State as UNC's permanent cross-divisional opponent and Duke as Wake Forest's.

Football

Results

The football rivalry, first meeting in 1888, is the oldest intercollegiate football rivalry in the American state of North Carolina As of 2019, there have been 107 games between the two teams. Currently UNC have 69 wins, Wake 36 wins and 2 games ended in a tie. The 2019 & 2021 games will officially be non-conference games and thus will not be counted in the ACC standings.
This unusual occurrence of a non-conference regular season game between teams in the same conference has only occurred once before in the recent history of the major FBS conferences.

Men's basketball

Carolina currently leads the series 162–67.
The rivalry dates back to when Wake Forest was in Wake Forest, NC, and was only a short distance from UNC's campus. The rivalry that grew between the two schools became very intense, with fights breaking out on the court in certain match ups. Their rivalry eventually expanded into the Big Four with NC State and Duke, which are recognized as being some of the fiercest rivalries in NCAA men's basketball.
Over the years there have been many classic and exciting games in this series. In 1983, UNC came back from behind to win 80–78 at the Greensboro Coliseum.
In 1995, the two teams faced each other in the ACC Tournament Championship game. Wake won behind center Tim Duncan and shooting guard Randolph Childress who made the go-ahead basket in an 82–80 overtime win.