Counting the days: 2024 football schedules starting to take shape

Appalachian State football posted this on its social media pages Sunday: “Only 258 more days until game day at The Rock. #GoApp #BeatETSU”

Yes, we’re almost ready to close the books on the 2023 season, but the 2024 schedule is starting to take shape for many of North Carolina’s Division I teams.

Charlotte and East Carolina recently learned their conference opponents for 2024, an announcement which filled out their 12-game schedules. Wake Forest, North Carolina and NC State also know all 12 of their opponents for ’24.

Duke has all but one non-conference slot filled.

Here are highlights of what we know so far, with team-by-team schedules listed at the bottom of this story:

* North Carolina is slated to open its season Thursday, Aug. 29 at Minnesota. The Heels and Gophers played in Chapel Hill this past September. This will be the return game. At this point, no other FBS team from the state has a game scheduled for that Thursday, the first official day of week one of the season.

* For the second year in a row, Tre Lamb will open the season against Appalachian State. In 2023, Lamb coached Gardner-Webb in its season opener in Boone. This coming season, Lamb will lead East Tennessee State, his new team, to The Rock for an Aug. 31 showdown. (As noted above, App State is already building anticipation).

* Duke still does not have an opponent scheduled for Aug. 31. With only three out of four non-conference slots filled, the Blue Devils likely will pick up another game over the next few months.

* NC State will play Tennessee in the 2024 Duke’s Mayo Kickoff Classic at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. The contest will be Saturday, Sept. 7. UNC beat South Carolina in the 2023 Duke’s Mayo kickoff game.

* North Carolina Central and North Carolina A&T will step up in weight class against in-state FBS opponents in 2024. Central will visit UNC on Sept. 14. A&T will open the season at Wake Forest on Aug. 31. The annual Aggie-Eagle classic between the rival HBCUs is scheduled for Sept. 21 in 2024 in Durham.

* App State will face a challenging non-conference slate. After East Tennessee State, the Mountaineers will visit Clemson and East Carolina the following two weeks. The final non-Sun Belt game will be Sept. 28 against Liberty, which finished the 2023 regular season undefeated.

* Charlotte will open the season at home against James Madison, then will play at Indiana three weeks later. Curt Cignetti, who coached JMU to an 11-1 record this past regular season, is now the head coach at Indiana. UNC also plays James Madison in 2024 as part of its non-conference slate. The Heels host Charlotte in week two.

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* Charlotte won at East Carolina in the inaugural American Athletic Conference meeting between the two schools back in October. The 49ers will host the Pirates this coming season, date and time TBA.

* Both Duke and Wake Forest will host Connecticut in 2024. NC State and Duke played the Huskies this past season. Maybe the ACC should have annexed UConn instead of Cal, Stanford and SMU.

* Wake Forest’s non-conference schedule also includes a home match-up with Ole Miss in mid-September and a mid-November road trip to Army, which is joining the American Athletic.

* Wake Forest (at Stanford, home against Cal), NC State (at California, home against Stanford) and Duke (home against SMU) will play games against the ACC newcomers this season. UNC does not face any of the three new schools.

* Western Carolina was the only North Carolina school (all divisions) not to play an in-state opponent in 2023. The Catamounts will face three teams from the Old North State to start 2024: opening at NC State on Aug. 31, hosting Campbell on Sept. 7 and traveling to Elon on Sept. 14.

WCU also plays at Montana on Sept. 21. The Grizzlies advanced to the FCS championship game on Saturday with a double overtime victory over North Dakota State. Montana will face South Dakota State on Jan. 7 for the FCS crown.

* Other than playing an eight-game Pioneer Football League schedule in 2024 (opponents still TBD), nothing is known about Davidson’s schedule for next season at this point. The Wildcats usually announce their complete schedule in the early spring.

* Because Labor Day will be Sept. 2 in 2024, the college football season will cover 14 weeks from its start that weekend until Thanksgiving weekend. That means that teams that play a 12-game schedule will have two bye weeks instead of the usual one.

2024 FBS and FCS Football Schedules