Don’t look now, but the 2025 football season has arrived in North Carolina!
It’s officially a game week – both for high school teams across the Old North State and one of our college programs.
- Week 1 for high school football. Friday night lights return across the state, with rivalries renewed and playoff dreams beginning.
- Week 0 for college football. North Carolina Central takes the spotlight in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta, the lone NC college team in action this weekend.
Welcome back! We hope you’ve had a great summer — now it’s time for another five months of football. Sit back and enjoy the ride.
🏈 High School Kickoff: Time for 8 Classifications of NCHSAA Football
This week marks the start of the NCHSAA’s new classification era — with schools now competing across eight classes (1A through 8A) for the first time instead of four.
The season opens with a bang, headlined by the Keep Pounding High School Classic at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, where defending 3A champion West Charlotte takes on 4A powerhouse Grimsley in one side of a doubleheader.
Other notable Week 1 matchups:
- Tarboro (defending 1A champion) at Rocky Mount
- Monroe (2A champion) at Hoke County
- Cardinal Gibbons at Greensboro Dudley
- Rolesville at Mallard Creek
- Sanderson (alma mater of NC Football News publisher Eric Lusk, class of 1989) at Ashley
- Your favorite team or high school alma mater – because every game matters
Friday night lights are back, and the chase for state titles begins across North Carolina – eight of them if you follow the NCHSAA.
📊 NC High School Scoreboard Hub – Follow every score across the state, updated weekly all season long.
🗂️ New NCHSAA Conferences – See how the 1A–8A realignment has reshaped leagues statewide.
🦅 College Kickoff: MEAC/SWAC Challenge
The 2025 college football season begins Saturday night in Atlanta with a prime-time spotlight on ABC (7:30 p.m.) as North Carolina Central meets Southern University in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge.
- The Eagles are coming off an 8–3 season and a second-place MEAC finish. Picked second again this year, they enter with clear championship aspirations.
- The Jaguars nearly crossed paths with NCCU in last year’s Cricket Celebration Bowl, reaching the SWAC title game but losing to Jackson State for the league’s bid to the post-season finale.
- Saturday will mark the first meeting between the two programs since 2006 – and it comes on a national stage.
The MEAC leads the overall series against its SWAC rivals, but SWAC teams have won the last three games.
📰 Stay Connected: NC Football Weekly
Want more North Carolina college football in your inbox? NC Football Weekly, our free email newsletter, delivers schedules, recaps, rankings and features from across the state every week during the season.
👉 Sign up here to never miss a kickoff. It’s FREE.
🔗 What To Watch For on NC Football News This Season
College football resources and special features that will live on our Web site and X channel (@NCFootballNews) this season:
- ⭐ The Fabulous 15 – Our unique statewide, all-division college rankings. (Preseason Fab 15 drops later this week)
- 🏆 Player of the Week / Player of the Year Awards – Honoring the top players on offense, defense and special teams. (Preseason watch list drops soon!)
- 📊 FBS, FCS & D2 Power Rankings – Our weekly take on how NC’s college teams stack up against their in-state division rivals.
- 👑 One Team To Rule Them All (This Week) – A weekly tip of the cap to the most impressive college team in North Carolina that weekend.
- 📈 Stats & Numbers – Weekly and season-long statewide leaders in a variety of individual and team categories.
- 📅 2025 College Master Schedule – Every game from every week, all in one place.
- 🕒 2025 College Football Scoreboard Hub – Live scoreboards updated on game days and archived for the whole season.
- 🏅 2025 Statewide Standings – Every NC college team’s W-L record stacked up statewide, with links to FBS, FCS, D2 and D3 conference standings.
